The Fork In The Road (Far Cry 3)
by TheSirenMonster
Summary: What Mickey had done was in the past, but, it's what led her to run away to the island of Rook. Once a captive, but now, proving herself as one of them, Mickey is now one of the pirate lords, that ranks with Vaas. Two years on that island later... (Vaas/OC). [DISCONTINUED.]
1. Missus Insanity

[The Start Of A Brink]

_(Five years ago...)_

_"I'm sorry, but... there was no saving Johnny Hutchinson from the shots. He died in the hospital soon after."_

_"No! Don't tell me that!" Father screamed, slamming the table surface with his fists. "I don't want to hear that! My boy isn't dead!"_

_"Dad...?" A young girl with red hair approached her father in the living room. "Dad... what're these Marines doing in our home? Where's Johnny?"_

_"... I'm sorry..." Father went to embrace his confused daughter. "I'm so sorry... Your brother is dead..."_

_(Two Years Ago...)_

_Police had found that a family of four have been brutally slaughtered. These images may disturb those who are sensitive to the sight of blood and grotesque deaths. If you are prone to become ill from these images, then please, turn yourself away._

_The father of the family had bled to death in his chair, strapped down to it, with his hands cut off with a giant blade the police found in the living area. The wife had seemed to have been suffering greatly from acid injection from gathered syringes found in the same room her body was in, along with her two children, who were hanging by homemade nooses. They did die of strangulation, but, had seemed to have been beaten with a metal bat recovered from the scene as well._

_No one had survived this tragedy. We give our prayers to this unfortunate family._

_(Two Years Ago, and Seven Days Later...)_

_Police found the body of a man alone in his house, that had seemed to have died from suicide. The gun was recovered from the scene. His daughter, unknown by name, has seemed to have vanished. Police have found connection from this man to the family massacre that happened days ago. Authority is contemplating on the idea of the missing daughter being a link to these murders, but, her awareness is inconclusive._

_For your own family's sake, that if you ever encounter this woman, then please, do not hesitate to call authority. Stay far away from her, and do not make any contact. She is a strong suspect in the family massacre, and could do the exact same ordeal on you, if she finds you._

_(Two Years Ago, and Ten Days Later...)_

_DNA evidence link the fingerprints and blood found on the weapons to be tied to the missing daughter of the suicide man and the slaughtered family. She is now Britain's Most Wanted. Please, for Pete's sake... if you spot a woman, with the identification of standing five-five-feet, weighing one-hundred pounds, and has bright, red hair, anywhere in England's cities, please, take caution, and do not approach her. Call police. Call the British Navy! Heck, call on God, for your own safety!_

[Begin]

"Let's kill some fucking gypsies!" Vaas roared out in a jovial, screaming tone, raising two pump-action shotguns in the air with both hands.

By "gypsies", he was actually referring to the outsiders whom were lost in the jungle.

Knowing the massive jungle so well, like the back of his hand, Vaas would obviously find this game of hide-and-seek to be the most enjoyable. "Six bitches, all alone in the jungle..." He chuckled wickedly, walking towards the jungle path entrance, with a spring in his step, as he strapped the two shotguns to his back. "Oh, but what's this?" He dramatically raises both hands to his ears, as if he were listening for something from the distance. "The mighty fuckin' Chthulu rises from the ocean to take their sunlight, and make them his slaves for the next three thousand years! He reigns once more!" He pumped his fists into the air.

"Wait the fuck up!" A female's voice of a British accent shouted from the watch tower. "I want to play, too, you jerk!"

Vaas recgonized this voice. "You fuckin' bitch! Get the fuck down here!"

"Shut the fuck up! You didn't tell me we were going somewhere!" The squeaky female voice shouted back, hearing the footsteps of her climbing down the watch-tower ladder booming in Vaas' ears. When she had jumped down from the final steps of the ladder, she had appeared from hiding, with her arms opened up and in the air, like she was in the spotlight of it all. "You wanted the Mandarin?! I AM the Mandarin!"

Vaas scoffed at her. "I'm the fuckin' Mandarin here. Got that?"

The girl sticks her tongue at Vaas, ignoring his retort.

"Initiate phase one." Vaas pulled out a gun from his hip holster and tossed it to her. She caught it swiftly. It was a beautiful Python 357. "That beaut is a gift for you, guapa, for being such a good girl today with taking care of the last outsider."

The girl made a false look of excitement, hugging the loaded magnum gun to her chest, like a teddy bear. "I'm _so_ special!"

"Now, let's go kill some fucking gypsies!" Vaas screamed out again, before turning on his heel and sped off into the jungle, with the girl jogging after him, while putting the magnum gun into her empty hip holster.

The strange girl was nicknamed Mickey.

She was a captive two years ago on Rook Island.

Her appearance would throw off anyone hunting her down. She was a very petite woman, that was slim on weight, and only stood five-four-feet. She had long, red hair that she always had brushed over the front of her shoulders. She hated her hair hanging on her back. She had big, brown eyes, that looked completely innocent at first glance. She was a good girl, at first, but was never the same after the second act of kindness.

She was also a mass murderess wanted in America - killing an entire rival family that had put her own family into their debt graves. She had made the family members do unspeakable acts before she killed them.

Mickey forced the husband to eat his own fingers that she cut off with a blade. He was strapped to his armchair and was left to die bleeding to death from his sawed off hands. She made the wife beat her children to dead with a metal bat, while they were hanging by the neck with nooses in the basement. She then made the wife torment herself by injecting dozens of lethal posions into her arms, that would cause slow, painful deaths of suffocation and constant agony. She eventually died from acid injection.

Mickey ran away to Rook Island soon after, but did not expect to be captured as a victim herself.

When she had luckily escaped captivity, she wouldn't trust a soul. Even the other captured victims were enemies to her.

Soon, her constant paranoia of dying caught up to her, and she killed a captive woman who was pregnant at the time. She beat her to death with a giant rock, killing her instantly with a good hit to the skull, cracking it open.

Hoyt found her after that incident, and found her to be too useful to kill or sell off to a slaver. He kept her as one of his dogs, putting her in charge of the pirates. She was a second pirate lord. But, Hoyt warned her to listen to the _real_ pirate lord, Vaas Montenegro. She could still rule as a lord, but Vaas was king to them.

Vaas and Mickey had got along well over the two years of working alongside, but, they knew well that they still couldn't trust each other, when one of them picked up a weapon. It was a strange friendship that grew between them.

Why was she nicknamed Mickey? Because when she was found, she was wearing a bright yellow t-shirt, with the cartoon face of Mickey Mouse on the front. She was a big fan of the cartoon mouse.

"Okay, enough about me." Mickey fluttered her eyes, enjoying the attention. "We should seriously focus on our Quest, Johnny! We've got a bunch of goblins running wild in the jungle!"

"You're right, sidekick." Vaas dramatically jumps up on a flat boulder, posing. "I'll scout this side of the jungle. You go search over there! Signal the Bat Light if you need my assistance!"

Of course, Vaas was speaking dramatic quotes of movie characters. As maniacal as he was, Vaas was actually a big fan of movies. Especially action-packed movies, full of cars, guns, explosions, and babes. He even enjoyed the movies of super heroes.

As Vaas ordered, the two had gone to scout two opened areas of the jungle path that split.

While Vaas had searched his side, Mickey had gone to go look in the brush.

In the thick of the vines and leaves blocking her path, Mickey spotted a hidden bunch of the recent runaway captives.

It was a wife and husband, who were hiding together behind a tall group of palm trees. They seemed to have been praying for each other in a foreign accent. It sounded like it were French, but, Mickey hated guessing, because she was always wrong.

Quietly, she signaled to Vaas with a wave of both of her hands in the air for him to approach. He caught the signal and silently snuck close to where she was hiding, and also saw the couple through the brush.

"This is going to easy." Vaas whispered to Mickey.

"Psst. You need a mint." Mickey says in the same tone of voice Vaas used.

[Just In Time]

"I told you it'd be easy."

Vaas and Mickey stood before a giant light post, glorifying over their work.

The couple were hanging by nooses, dead by gunshots to their foreheads. Black liquid was dripping from their opened wounds, splattering on the ground, breaking up into a brilliant red color, like a drop of paint.

"Oh, wait a minute." Mickey appraoched the dead couple and took both their hands, locking them together by their fingers. "There! The power of love compels you!" Mickey clapped her hands together, spinning around twice.

"Ugh. I could care less." Vaas wanted to gag.

"Oh, you're so mean. What about us?" Mickey asked the pirate lord, with a false, hopeful look on her face. "Friendship is magic."

Vaas clicked his tongue, rolling his eyes. But, he grinned. "You think friendship is magic now. Wait until we turn on each other." Vaas snapped his fingers. "Just like that! We'll become the greatest rivals of all fucking history. You won't care anymore after that."

Mickey made a gasp, putting her hands on her cheeks, as a shocked expression. "You don't say?" She rolled her eyes. "This just reminds me of that episode of My Little Pony I watched today! You hurtful bastard."

She then began to sing out loud, with her hands locked together.

"I could care less about you, Vaas. I wish I didn't partake in anything you dictact. Vows will be lying, when I say: that through any kind of weather, I will be loyal to you, my master. The truth is, I don't care for you at all!" She twirled around once, now standing under the hanging couple. "No, I do not care for the man! In my heart, there is no room!" She dramatically stretches her hand out to Vaas. "But, I still want you to be all _mine_!"

Vaas took a moment to listen to Mickey singing. For a psychopath, she had a beautiful voice. Shameful that she would waste it.

Vaas clenched his fists to his chest and exhaled, pretending to be in awe of her hurtful words. "I can just _feel_ the love!"

"Copyrighted." Micky simply said. "You can't steal it now. It's mine. Sorry."

Suddenly, from a distance, Vaas and Mickey heard the booming sounds of guns shots exploding, and a roar of vehicles and people screaming from a close distance. It was in Bad Town.

"Holy macaroni, Batman!" Mickey held up her magnum gun. "Joker's attacking in Bad Town!"

"Let's go, Robin! To the batmobile!" Vaas lastly orders, before the two run off into the jungle once more.

**Teehee, ya'll. More to come, in the next chapter!**


	2. Camera Woman

"For too long, the human race has ignored the signs..." Vaas said, as the red-headed pirate lord, Mickey, followed him from behind.

It was a sunny day out in the jungle, and the two were making their way through an opened path of a dirt road together, approaching a small, hidden village, quietly.

"Your planet is nearing destruction." Vaas continued talking, as the two hid behind two, tall palm trees, that was obscuring them from any sight of village guards able to spot them. "Salvation is reserved, for those who pass the test." Vaas smirks to himself, peeking from behind the tree trunk, at the village down below the hill they were standing on. "If you survive, an elevated existence awaits." Vaas looks back to his second pirate lord. "Initiate phase one." He goes for his hip and takes a remote control with two buttons on it. "Power up the bass canon." He lifts the remote control up to look down at.

He pressed down on a red button. "Fire."

_Boom._

The small village expolded. Planet explosives from underneath the villagers' feet had gone off, likely killing them all at once. The explosives had covered every square inch of the village ground, leaving it virtually impossible to leave any surviving victims behind. If there were, they were either bleeding to death from half their bodies being blown off, or just slowly dying from the rock pellets shot into their bodies from the explosion.

The explosions went of another four rounds, before Vaas and Mickey found it safe to come out of hiding.

"Whoa!" Mickey looked at the demolished village in awe. "That bass dropped so hard, their ancestors would feel that one!"

"That dropped harder than Rihanna dropping Chris Brown." Vaas corrected Mickey.

After the annilation of the small village went out with a bang, literally, the two had gathered other pirates to help them scout the hot grounds to see if there were any surviving men or women to be found, either useful, or worthless enough to kill off.

So far, the demolished village had shown no signs of survival.

"It looks like no one's here." Mickey said, kicking over a large piece of thin metal covering up a dead body. "He looks like he's having a fabulous day today." Mickey turned the dead man's face to her's with her boot, seeing that it was burned up from the explosion.

Vaas, seeing Mickey examining the dead body, jumped straight on the dead body's chest with his heavy boots. It was likely to crush the chest interior. "Hey! Guapa." Vaas caught the pirate lord's attention. "Have you ever heard of the balancing point?"

"You mean..." Mickey puts her gun back into her hip holster. She lifts her arms up in front of her, straightening them outward. "With everything being perfectly balanced by one thing or person? I'm not good with math..."

"That answer is so true." Vaas stops Mickey. He steps off the burnt body and wraps his muscular arm around her tiny shoulders. He brought her closer to his body, as they both walked together. "What makes this world suited to balance so perfectly, guapa? Is it the good, the bad, or the ugly?"

"I always thought the ugly had it rough, so, I think the ugly. Final answer." Mickey answers.

Vaas taps his index fingertip on Mickey's forehead. "Correct."

"Yaa-a-aay..." Mickey quietly cheered, clapping her hands together lightly.

[Next]

In the base of camp, Mickey was up on a watch tower, looking through something she had snatched off of a survivor.

It was an iPad. Something usually common to find on wealthy tourists that are kidnapped by the pirates. But, what sparked interest in this particular iPad was that Mickey could access Internet now. No idea how, but, Mickey didn't care at the moment. She was too busy reading gossip and what's new in the media war.

"You son of a bitch!" Vaas screamed from below. He was yelling at a recruit that failed into bringing him his drugs. "I fucking told you to get me some cocaine, and you _don't fucking remember_?!" He was prepared to throw a good punch into the man's face, when...

"Hey, Vaas!" Mickey shouted from the watch tower.

"What the fuck do you want?!" He screamed back.

"This iPad totally has all the bought episodes of Happy Tree Friends on here!" Mickey held up the iPad over her head with both her hands.

Vaas' jaw dropped. "Holy fuckin' shit, get out of the way!" He shoved the recruit out of his way and made a beeline up the watchtower ladder to join Mickey in watching the adult series.

[Next]

Scouting the jungle again, mostly because Vaas and Mickey had grown tired of waiting around for something to happen, Vaas had stepped upon something beneath a thin pile of old leaves under his boot.

When he digged under the leaves to see what it was, he found a DVD case that had the cover of the popular romance movie, The Notebook.

"Yo, big boss. What's really hood?" Mickey appraoched Vaas from behind.

"The Notebook?" Vaas remembers watching the movie, actually. It was something he thought he would never watch, but, from what the other islanders had said about it being so popular, he wanted to watch the damned movie title.

_Rustle._

A sound from the bushes had woke Mickey and Vaas' senses to look up. When they did, they spotted a Hispanic girl running as fast as she could from the two hunters. She looked pretty frail from starvation, which meant she probably wouldn't get much farther.

"Vaas always was a sap for the romantic stories." Vaas said, referring to himself in third-person.

Suddenly, he snatches Mickey's wrist in his large hand, and starts dragging her along the epic chase for the starving girl.

"Let's go meet our lady, in waiting!" Vaas cheers on, in a demonic voice that sounded too jovial. Perhaps mimicking a school girl's tone, after she had heard news on a stupid romance movie coming to play. "Have you even seen The Notebook?"

"Oh!" Mickey saw the DVD case Vaas was still carrying in his other hand. "Ryan Gosling is such a dreamy-beanie!"

"_Mmmm_. Hehehehehe!" Vaas mocked a giggily school girl's laughter.

Up ahead, Vaas could immediately see that the starved girl was slowing down from short energy. He started high-tailing it towards the girl. "We're going to see our love, kid! MY love, that is!" Vaas was running in such speed, he should have thought hard on joining the Olympic Track Team for next event of the future. "Wait, my lady!"

Vaas' shouting startled the poor girl into speeding up, running down a clear path that the two hunters could plainly see her running on.

Mickey snatched her hand out of Vaas' grip and also started running after the girl herself, with a completely focused look on her, as if her major objective of the day was to capture the Hispanic girl.

"Guide me, Rudolph! Guide me!" He joked, indicating it on how red Mickey's hair was in the sunlight. "Rudolph, with your fucking mane so red and bright, won't you guide me tonight?"

"Fuck no!"

_Trip._

The two felt both their feet trip over something on the ground, while they weren't paying attention to what was up ahead. They both tumbled down on the ground, luckily not closer to the steep hill, or else they would be rolling downward like logs.

What they tripped on was that frail, Hispanic girl. She had collapsed from exhaustion, but wasn't dead. Just completely out of breath.

"What the fuck?!" Vaas screamed, getting his bearings. He slammed his fists onto the dirt path they fell upon. "That had _nothing_ to do with The Notebook! What the Hell!"

"Epic rolling action there, Spider-man. New York City is sure lucky to have you." Mickey complimented Vaas, getting herself up to dust herself off. She stepped closer to Vaas to help him up, while dusting off his shoulders.

"Don't mention it, citizen." He roughly patted Mickey's shoulder. "I'm just your friendly neighborhood Spider-man."

[Next]

With the iPad that Mickey discovered earlier from the dead survivor's body, they used it to make a show for the Internet. Vaas called it the "Vaas Show", with his trusted sidekick, Mickey, filming everything from the iPad.

"Hello, Internet Peoples!" Vaas greeted the recording iPad. He was on screen, eating a half-gone peeled bananna. The ocean was in view behind of him, with the tiny waves crashing up on the sand shore. There were also water rocks standing high to the sky from the ocean floor, with masses of green moss grown on the heads. Once he ate the last piece, he tossed the bananna peel into the air behind him.

"Yo, between you are me," Vaas took a few steps closer to the iPad. He put his hands on his knees with his, bending his upper body forward slightly, to Mickey's level. "You should be outside, playing in the sunshine, instead of watching this bullshit."

With a moment of silence, Mickey could be heard making a "pfft" sound, indicating that she wanted to laugh at what Vaas said. She shook her head, holding in her laughter. The camera on the iPad shook slightly from her movements.

Vaas squinted at Mickey for a second, before a smile grew wide on his face from hearing the girl snort, and gets back up to stand straight.

"Since you are _still_ here, welcome to my Show! Take a look at my island." Vaas starts pacing to his right, as Mickey followed him with the iPad still filming. Then, Vaas raised his voice loudly, "Christopher Mintz-Plasse! Where are you!"

Mickey silently laughed again at Vaas, as he also chuckled wickedly along with her.

He dramatically twirled around once, and raised both arms out to his right, pointing with both hands down to the sand. Mickey followed.

In the sand, was the buried man of the famous actor, Christopher Mintz-Plasse. He was buried up to his neck, with his head still exposed. He was unable to dig himself out, from the lone work of Vaas burying him in the sand grave.

Christopher was spitting sand out of his mouth, while Vaas crawled down to a laying position next to the actor's head.

"Chris." Vaas spoke to Chris. "Say hello to the Internet Peoples!"

Christopher, outraged of what's become himself in the damned sand trap, only cursed out, "Fuck YOU, you psycho!"

Mickey made a dramatic gasp, hearing Christopher swear, but still recorded.

Vaas didn't like the response he got from the actor. He turned over to his back to go for his hip holster, pulling out his trusted pistol, that was loaded. He cocked the gun back, startling the actor to stutter out, frantically.

"I'm sorry, what did you say, Chris?" Vaas turned back over to his side, pointing the gun straight at the side of Christopher's head. "What the _fuck_ did you just say?"

"... Nothing..." Christopher fearfully whispered, shaking his head. "Nothing. Nothing. Nothing..."

Happy with the cooperation Christopher was making, Vaas pulled back the gun. He sprinkled a finger-full of sand on top of Christopher's head with his other hand, before pulling himself up to his feet.

"Okay!" Vaas said, adjusting the straps on his shoulder. "I did not decide if I want to kill Chris, or not."

"WHAT?!" Christopher screamed out in shock.

"I want to know what you people think." He pointed the barrel of the gun at the recording iPad. "What you _really_ think." Ignoring Christopher's cries, Vaas continued speaking. "I want you to comment _life_, if you want him to live." He explained, as he sheathed the gun back into his hip holster. "_Death_, if you want him to die."

"Life!" Christopher helplessly cried out, hoping whoever was watching would hear him.

"Take a look at my tripod! I built it myself!" Vaas now pointed to his left, down to a flat boulder, where there was a small stand of three, thick sticks standing up, wrapped together in rope, holding up a rock in the middle, that acted as the spot for the camera to sit on. It was surprisingly sturdy, even when Vaas put his hand down and rested his weight on it. "Looks like a Hollywood thing, no, Chris?"

"Uh - y-y-yeah man, you're great man..." Christopher agreed, frightened if he didn't.

Vaas smiled more. He glanced at Mickey. "Put the camera on the tripod."

As Mickey put the camera down onto the tripod, standing the iPad up properly on the stand, she left it there. She eventually got bored of not being able to talk, and started walking off, humming the opening theme to M.L.P.

"Ladies and gentlemen." Vaas was now sitting right next to Christopher's head, with his legs crossed and the gun back in his hand. "Don't forget to tune in on our daily tortures!"

"What?! Tortures?!" Christopher screamed.

"While I teach Chris on how to be a man. Thank you, and bye-bye."

**Lights, camera, and action!**

**Read on more, in the next chapter!**


	3. Platonic Vaas

_Life wasn't as happy-go-lucky as I always wanted it to be as a kid. My parents ruled Rook Island with a mighty fist, and my sister tagged along for the power._

_Me?_

_I wanted to be my own self, and just try my best to be like one of the other kids on the island. Care-free and not power hungry, like my fucked up family. I couldn't seriously fit in with the rest of the kids on the island, because of my status. Usually, I was pushed aside from their games, or just ignored._

_Ha. Like I would think of being friends with my only sister. I wanted to rip her tongue out everytime she spoke. Make her bleed to death, while I stomped on her heart, right in front of her. I guess that was the leadership I was given in my blood, when I became the most violent. I wanted to go die sometimes, but, not alone. I wanted to take everyone else with me._

_But, when things began to deteriorate as I grew up, I met someone new._

_Yeah. That crazy-ass broad, Mickey. I still can't believe she was found by Hoyt and allowed to live another day. It was something out of the ordinary for the boss to do. I didn't like her at first, but she didn't put up with me that much. She would ignore me, or just take orders from the other pirate lords on the island. I guess it was like a repetitive childhood memory with her, which was either awkward or just plain out obnoxious._

_But, in all honesty, I think I did love her once. She saved my life from being gun-down by a group of tourists that were about to kill me. She luckily had a machine gun on her, and took them out like flies. I thought it was actually cool the way Mickey handled the situation with ease, and I had thought of falling in love. Heh. I had to ask myself if I wanted to fall in love._

_For a good year, I was in love. We weren't together, though. I hated spilling out my fucking lovey-dovey feelings towards any woman. Especially someone like Mickey, because I knew she would have turned me down. If she did, I would have just put a bullet through her head and be going on with my life. But, then these stupid feelings would just linger._

_When that same year passed, Mickey and I were on good terms. She wasn't ignoring me anymore, and always came to me if she needed serious adjustments to her leadership. Wait. You think we're screwing around with each other? If we were, then I'd be dead, or she'd be dead. No fucking way._

_I started falling out of love with Mickey after another year passed. I was sick of being in love, in secret. I just wanted to go and kill her, for making me feel like I had to tell her everything on my mind. I blamed her for a good while on these feelings, and then, blamed myself. After that, I just blamed all the kidnapped hostages we captured._

_Mickey was still working alongside me though. We became fucked up friends._

"Have you ever been in love, Chris?" Vaas asked the still-buried actor in the sand, approaching him with a giant, heavy regeneration box in his hands that he carried with ease. He also had black and red cords in his hand, that connected to the box.

"What?" Christopher tiredly asked.

"Have you ever been in love?" Vaas repeated himself, while he sat down the regenerator on the sand ground, kneeling down beside it to start putting in the cords. "I've been in love once. Maybe twice..." Vaas mumbles, while Christopher is panicking to the sight of the electrical box before him. "Red... black..." Vaas started attaching the cords into the box, seeing small electrical sparks fire up when he turned on the dial to the box.

Once the cords were plugged in, Vaas picked up the red and black cords to the box and moved over to Christopher, holding two ends of the cords to each side of Christopher's head, and prepared to electrify him.

He pressed the electrical cords to Christopher's head.

"Aaahhh!" Christopher screamed out to the numbing shock of electricity shaking him up. He squirmed around for a couple of seconds, before he suddenly passed out.

Vaas was laughing. "That was so funny! You were shaking your head around like a fucking, uh... Have you ever seen those little toys? The _wahine_ toy-" Vaas stopped, noticing that Christopher wasn't making any movements. "Chris?" Vaas laid down on his side next to Christopher's head, looking at his dirty face. "Chris? Bro?" Vaas pushed his fingertips against Christopher's head, seeing if the actor would react. "Hey, fuck off, Chris." Vaas kept trying to see if he were awake or not.

When Vaas realized that Christopher wasn't awake, he panicked, and got back up to electrify Christopher back to life.

Two shocks to his head, and Christopher had fortunately woke up, breathing hard in terror when he snapped his eyes open.

"Fuck!" Vaas swore out, hearing the regenerator box explode. "You scared the fuck out of me, you shithead."

[Next]

"Vaas. Wakey-wakey." Mickey tried waking Vaas up in his shack. She was crouching down at the side of his cot bed, watching him sleeping soundly. He snored like a fucking chainsaw, though. "Vaas, wake the fuck up!" Mickey shook Vaas by his broad shoulders. He still wouldn't wake up. She took something out of her shorts' pocket. It was a folded up picture. She unfolded it and put it in Vaas' face, waking him up to the intense smell of perfume Mickey always wore.

When Vaas opened his eyes, he saw that the picture was of human arms, with tiny holes exposed on them. Vaas made a petrified shout and grabbed the picture, ripping it up into pieces, and then threw it out an opened window above his head.

"You fucking bitch!" Vaas screamed at a laughing Mickey. He felt like bawling in a corner from the sight of that picture. "You know I've got trypophobia, you... you bitch."

"Aw." Mickey rubbed his upper arm as comfort. "No one believes in that fear, silly. Not recorded in phobia records."

"But, it's a fucking disgusting fear, dammit. Carry me." Vaas wrapped his arms around Mickey's shoulders.

Mickey looped her arm under the bend of Vaas' legs and wrapped her other arm around his back, and tried with all her might to lift him up, bridal style. But, with her petite body, and skinny arms, it was like watching a walking stick insect trying to pick up a giant rock.

"You fatass." Mickey gave up.

"I'm not _fat_. You're just fucking frail."

[Next]

"Vaas, are you sure you want to make a show on your tortures?"

"You getting soft on me now, guapa?"

Mickey and Vaas were walking back to the beach, where Vaas had left Christopher buried in the sand. Luckily, Christopher was only buried from his feet to his neck, so his head was still unburied. Christopher had been left there for a couple of days, usually being visited only by Vaas, to either keep updating on his Vaas Show, or check and see if he was still breathing. From the short episodes Vaas had posted on the Internet, this was the fifth episode, and still, no one had done anything about it.

The Internet had probably become something menacing, Vaas had concluded. Because there hadn't been help arriving to save Christopher from Rook Island, Vaas figured that the viewers of his show had begun to enjoy the torment. So, he continued doing these torments, until he was satisfied enough to count the Life and Death comments.

"Did you get those firecrackers?" Vaas asked Mickey. "I've got the metal bucket."

"Yeah, yeah." Mickey dug into her shorts' pocket and pulled out a line of firecrackers for Vaas to use. She also gave him a small box of matches that she usually carried around. "Don't waste the matches. I'm a firebug for firecrackers."

"What's up with yo' face?" Vaas suddenly asked, stopping on his tracks. He tossed the firecrackers and matches into the bucket in his arm, and lifted Mickey's face up to his, with his hand under her chin.

He saw a large scar on her face, and over her right eye, that looked fresh from a knife fight. The scar was still pink from trying to heal, but the blood was still angered underneath the healing skin. Her eye that was glazed over with the deep cut was closed slightly, to where he could barely see her brown eye.

"What the fuck happened?" Vaas demanded, in a more serious tone of voice.

Mickey swatted his hand away. "Just some bar fight with some pirate girl in the base. I think she likes you, Vaas." Mickey giggled, poking his shoulder. "She just got mad at me for always working alongside you, so, we got into a knife fight. Of course, I won. She just got lucky and sliced over my eye."

Vaas' eyes were large, and eyebrows were furrowed. He was officially pissed off. "What's her name? Is she dead?"

"I don't know. I think her name was Keeba. I stabbed her straight through the stomach, before we were both pulled away from each other." Mickey shrugged her shoulders heavily. "I don't care. I just want my eye to heal."

"You _should_ care, guapa. If she's not dead, it's a tie. And," He roughly poked her shoulder. "I know you fucking hate ties."

"I _do_ hate being tied. Sucks. Maybe I'll go find her later - wait," Mickey shoved Vaas a few steps away from her. "Why do you care? I thought you would laugh and call me a fucking idiot?"

"Whaaaat? Guapa, I'm offended." Vaas puts a hand over his chest, pretending to act hurt. "I'm just looking out for my bestie."

"That's lame." Mickey rolled her eyes.

"No, it's not." Vaas says in a firm tone. "I love you, in the most platonic way."

"... ... What does platonic mean...?"

"Oh shit. I totally twisted your brain cells, didn't I?" Now Vaas laughed at Mickey, follow by calling her a fucking idiot. "Platonic is the definition of feeling truly close to someone important, but, not in a sensual way. More like, _I love you, but only like a sister, nothing more,_ kind of way." He defined the difficult word for her.

"Oh." Mickey finally understood. "Aww!" Her good eye sparkled. "Friendship is truly magic!"

"Shut the fuck up with that My Little Pony shit."

"You're just mad because you're not Brony enough, and I'm a serious Pegasister."

**Sometimes, even the greatest secret in the world must be kept under wraps from the truth. Or sometimes, it's just best not to know them at all.**

**More to come, in the next chapter!**


	4. Hang Gliding Death

"So... can I keep it as a souvenir after it's extracted?"

"Sure, if you want. I don't know why, though, but it's not my problem if it rots."

In a large, old mansion that was sitting upon a cliff of the island, Mickey had to go visit the Doctor to fix her bad eye. But, since Mickey's eyeball was deeply sliced through to where she couldn't see out of it, the Doctor gave her the heads-up that she would have to become one-eyed Mickey for now on.

Instead of being devestated, Mickey was rather jovial about the situation.

"Just sit still while I get that scapel, yes?" The Doctor reminded Mickey, as she laid still in the white stretcher.

Mickey nodded her head, giving him the thumbs-up.

"I said sit still!" The Doctor snapped.

"_You_ sit still!" Mickey snapped back, in mockery.

About three hours later, after the eye removal of Mickey's damaged eye, Mickey was back in her shack, looking into a broken mirror of an old, wooden vanity she kept for herself. In the mirror, she could see a good, clear portion of her face, as she began to start strapping on a new eyepatch over her eye and head. It was a generic eyepatch you could think up: black, with a strap that wrapped around the top of her head, looping down to the side of her head, holding a large patch over her closed eye socket.

She looked at herself for a moment, and thought, "I am so pretty today!" As she happily clapped her hands together. Before she got up to leave her shack, Mickey picked up a miniture, quarter-size, bronze case from the vanity, that contained her new glass eye.

Stepping outside, it looked as if it were cloudy in the sky. There, a looming shade of clouds covering up the sun, but it didn't feel like it would rain. Instead, it felt like it was merely dark and shaded today. Gloomy and dreary, but for the islanders, it was a damned blessing to finally have a break from the humidity. Mickey took a deep breath, wondering if she could smell a trace of rain water in the air, but, the only thing she could smell was nature and ocean.

"Guapa." Vaas approached Mickey, when she stepped outside of her shack. "Woooow. Looking good there, chica." Vaas examined Mickey's new eyepatch with his eyes. "That's a new change. I think it looks better than that scar." Vaas compliments with a smirk, while Mickey was fixing her red bangs. "You look like a real fucking pirate now!"

"Oh, stop it, you." Mickey fluttered her good eye with a smile on her face. "I know I'm beautiful and all, but no need to keep telling me."

"Walk with me." Vaas gestures to the right, as Mickey stepped down from her shack steps. "I found where that Keeba girl was a few hours ago, while you were seeing that fucked-up doctor. Keeba was still alive."

"Aw, fuck!" Mickey snapped her fingers. "She's always been too determined for nothing."

"You won't need to worry about her anymore, hermana." Vaas assured Mickey, with a pat on her back. "I found where she was hiding and got her taken to the Pit. We'll visit her later, when it's time to take care of the rejects. You still up for the new activities we've got planned for the fuckers?"

"Yeah!"

[Somewhere Over The Rainbow]

"Let me go!" Keeba screamed, as she was held down to the ground, while her wrists were stretched out over her head to be tied down to a metal bar of a hang glider. Her wrists were being tightly held down with chains and duct tape. "What the fuck do you think you're doing?! You can't fucking do this! I am one of you!"

"Alright, Keeba." Vaas approached Keeba, crouching down to her side, once she was officially tied down. "Since you were such a bitch earlier to my pirate girl, I have to do something about it. You know how this works!" Vaas dramatically points up at the neon purple hang glider. "You are going to _fly _like a little butterfly over the ocean obstacles, so that you won't _die_, okay!" Vaas motioned his extended arm towards two other pirates to start moving the hang glider forward, towards the edge of the cliff.

"Okay, okay! I'm sorry, okay?!" Keeba tried apologizing, but Vaas was ignoring her.

Vaas tested the wind, and felt a strong blow of wind moving towards their backs. "Throw her!" Vaas ordered with a shout.

With that, the hang glider was pushed right off the cliff's edge, along with Keeba being dragged down with it.

The wind picked up heavily, under the hang glider's wings, and it miraculously picked up the glider into midair. Keeba was screaming her head off the entire time she was flying in random beeline directions, and the other pirates couldn't help but laugh themselves to death. Vaas was watching the entire time, wanting to either laugh or congrat Keeba for successfully making him roll over on the ground, laughing himself like a hyena.

"Good job, Keeba!" Vaas felt a tear drop run down his cheek from his laughter. "Good job taking one for the team, for me!" Then, Vaas dramatically lowers his voice and adds in, "Just like last night!" Which made the other pirates laugh harder.

Finally, the wind began to die down, and Keeba was darting downwards towards the rocks of the ocean. Vaas and the other pirates watched at the edge of the cliff, waiting for the outcome.

Keeba hit the rocks extremely hard, enough to where her head landed first into the rough surface of boulders. It cracked open her skull at the top of her head, pushing pressure against her brain. This hit was an instant death. Keeba's body dropped onto the surface and the glider was ruined. Her body slumped on the boulders, with heavy leaks of blood dripping out of her head.

"She deeeaaad, motherfucker." One of the pirate men cooed.

"Let's have a moment of silen- NOPE."

[Beach]

Vaas was back to Christopher, seeing how he was doing on the beach. Chris was unconscious from starving, but Vaas had no clue about it. He merely thought that he was getting too hot in the sun, so Vaas dug up Chris' body, and moved him under a large shade of a giant tree, still on the beach. He reburied his body into the sand, leaving his head exposed, and waited for Chris to wake up.

Still, Chris wasn't waking.

But, Vaas didn't think too much on his condition. Instead, out of his own boredom, he turned on the iPad to record, and made an extremely short video about bottle smashing.

"Hi!" Vaas appeared on the screen, sitting on his knees. He was sitting next to Chris' head. "My name is Vaas, and I'm here to teach you how to smash a bottle against your head! First," He reached behind him, and revealed a glass bottle of Devil's Cut alcohol. "Empty bottle." He popped open the bottle and started to chug down the Devil's Cut. He fast-forward the video to where he finished the hard liquor. When he finished, the video went back to playing on normal speed. "Then... _smash!_" He wrapped his fist around the neck of the bottle and smashed it over the unconscious head of Chris. The bottle expolded with glass pieces flying everywhere.

Chris woke up with a yelp, now feeling extreme pain at the temple of his head, and a raging headache coming along with it.

"Chris! You're awake!" Vaas threw the other half of the broken bottle over his shoulder. "I've got fucking food waiting for you. I had to wake you up with the bottle, because you weren't listening to my beautiful voice earlier, prick."

"Food...?" Chris was still dizzy from the bottle smashing against his head.

"Yes. Food. I'll be right back." Vaas got up to his feet and walked off camera to get the tray of food.

The plate of food was actually the cooked flesh of Chris' dead friend's, Berry's, leg. Vaas just didn't know where else to find some protein, because his island was mostly covered with fruit and other organic food. Too bad Chris just found out about this last minute, after he had taken a big bite of his friend's cooked flesh.

"What?! Berry?!" Chris screamed in horror, at what Vaas had just revealed to be Chris' friend's flesh that he was unknowingly eating.

"This is Berry!" Vaas grinned, picking up a cook piece of human flesh in his hand, and showing it to Chris.

"You fucking animal! You fed me Berry!" Chris began bawling.

"I did not feed you Berry. I fed you Berry's _leg_. Completely different." Vaas says, trying to make it sound like it were any better. "Look! It's Berry!" He put the cooked flesh into Chris' face. "Say something to Berry! Hello, Chris!"

"No! You're disgusting! You fed me Berry!" Chris kept crying.

Vaas just chuckled at Chris' misery. He lifted his head and looked over at Mickey, who was sitting off camera, just scribbling something down in her new journal she stole from a tourist. "He's so fucking sentimental. Like a pussy, you know?" Vaas grinned, seeing Mickey scoff and roll her good-eye with a smirk. "It's like meat, fuck." Vaas tossed the meat into both hands playfully, before tossing it back onto the plate. "Bye-bye!" He lastly waved to the camera, before it cut off abruptly.

**Some fresh air is good for the lungs. Especially hang gliding yourself to a plummeting death!**

**More to come, in the next chapter!**


	5. Bath Salts Psycho

Vaas and Mickey were in his shack, now playing with a new drug that he had heard all the hype about on-line. He ordered a large case of bath salts to the island, and directly to himself, since no one else on the island had seemed to have understood the idea of a bath salt high. They actually laughed, and so did Vaas, but, he couldn't help but be extremely curious about this drug.

But, Mickey knew what they were.

"Bath salts? Are you sure, Vaas?" Mickey worriedly asked the pirate, as he started crushing up a small rock of bath salts into dust on the wooden table surface. "My friend in high school did those things. They seriously do some fucked up shit to you. I mean it."

"Relax, Mickey-Chicky." Vaas brushes off Mickey's warning. "You're just worried about some fucking bath salts. What the hell could they possibly do to me? Get the high, then crash?"

"Uh..." Mickey didn't know what to say, once she saw Vaas plug his nostril with a short straw, and snort the line of crushed bath salts. "Okay. I'll just get the camcorder then. You may not remember anything you did after this."

"What?"

Just moments after the first dose of bath salts had hit his system, Vaas was suddenly ditzy and jovial to everything. He was even feeling Mickey's face, while she kept recording his actions.

"You're so beautiful, Mickey-Chicky." Vaas says, in a long, dragged out voice. He couldn't stop feeling Mickey's face, because he kept thinking her skin felt like silk. "Why does your skin feel so nice? How the-? H-H-How the...?" Vaas couldn't finish his sentence, because he let go of her face, and rolled off of his cot, with a loud thud when he hit the floor.

Mickey was recording every moment of Vaas' new high off bath salts. She couldn't help but find it sadly funny.

"Why are you crying, chica?" Vaas asked Mickey. "All them tears... they look like rainbow drops." Vaas said, reaching up to Mickey's face again to let his finger trail down her cheek, as if he were following a real tear trail on her face. "Have I ever told you that your eyes look like bright, bright, bright, bright, bright, bright, briiiight... puddles of mud?" Vaas bark out laughing, to the small sound of Mickey chuckling. "You look so colorful tonight." Vaas couldn't stop hugging Mickey's arm.

"Let's go outside, soldier." Mickey persuaded, by standing up, with Vaas also standing up, to the fact that he didn't want to let go of her arm. "Bath salts will risen your body temperture, so it's best to get out into the cold, while you still have your clothes on." Mickey last said, before opening the door to the shack, and walking themselves out.

"Holy fucking shit, Mickey! Look!" Vaas pointed directly at a brush of bushes. "I can see wings on those bushes from here!" Vaas was still standing, but trying to stand still like he had a bad limp. "They're flying! They're fucking flying, Mickey!"

Mickey just rolled her eyes. "Let's go see the others."

By others, she meant that she wanted the others to see how Vaas was doing with the bath salts.

When Vaas saw the pirates, he suddenly began to start screaming, in full rage. He didn't say anything. Just screamed.

"Wh-What the fuck is wrong with Vaas!" One of the young pirates panicked, watching as the pirate lord start to get down to the ground and begin to scout for invisible enemies.

"This is the effect of the bath salts. You become more psychotic than before. You begin hallucinating weird, false images of your greatest fears, or your greatest loves, and just begin acting out uncontrollably towards those visions." Mickey felt Vaas suddenly fall onto her back, wrapping his large arms around her small waist. She felt him hide his face onto the back of her neck. "You could become extremely violent at any moment, if Vaas sees something or hears something that'll set him off the hinges."

"Mickey," Vaas whispered in a harsh voice. "Tell me your secrets."

"Well..." An older pirate made a sleazy smirk on his face. He pulled out a pistol from his hip holster, and pointed it into the air. "Let's see!"

_BANG._

Vaas' pupils shrunk down to pencil dots. His eyes were wide in shock or panic, and his face became pale. Mickey noticed the sudden change and threw herself out of Vaas' arms to start running for her life. She knew too well of what could happen next.

"FUCK YOU ALL!" Vaas screamed to the top of his lungs, and pulled out both his guns from two hip holsters he had on, and started to blindly shoot dead-on at the five pirates in front of him. When he shot them down, he grabbed one that was still gurgling blood, and said to him, "your face looks fucking tasty," and Vaas began to chomp down on the helpless pirate's face.

"Run for your lives!" Mickey screamed out through the village she was running through. "Vaas is on bath salts!"

None of the villagers had a clue of what Mickey was talking about, until Vaas appeared, with a large machine gun strapped to his body, and reloaded to start mayhem.

"Sonic Rainboom, motherfuckers!" Vaas screamed, seeing a giant mess of rainbow-colored blood splatter everywhere when he began gunning down the small village's people. Vaas even saw their bodies turn from human to animals, seeing boars being slaughtered, goats beheaded, and horses falling over dead. "Let the bodies hit the floor. Let the bodies hit the floor. Let the bodies hit the floooooor!" Vaas screamed out the longest time, before the long clip of bullets was out.

Where ever Mickey was running, Vaas was going after her. While he was going after her, he was screaming, "I'm Mr. Brightside!"

The entire time they were running, Vaas had a machete in his hand from the village he destroyed, and was cutting down anything in his way. The tree branches, the brush, the arms of fellow pirates.

"I've got to stop Vaas!" Mickey finally concluded. She turned back around and went running back to Vaas. She had to be cautious about this, though.

Going back to Vaas, she saw him, in front of the entrance to the camp, dancing with a dead body, singing a song in Spanish.

"Vaas..." Mickey whispered his name. "Vaas...!"

Vaas dropped the body midway through his song, and turned to Mickey, abnormally breathing harder than before. His eyes were opened wide, and focused clearly on Mickey. He had a psychotic smile on his face that stretched ear-to-ear. He wouldn't stop moving his arms, because of the his blood rushing so fast through his body. The adrenaline was taking over.

Mickey nervously waved at Vaas.

"Mickey!" Vaas shouted her name, and darted straight at her. Mickey braced herself for the leap of faith. "I am so fucking happy to see you, guapa!" Vaas grabbed Mickey's shoulders with his large hands. "I think... I think I was just seeing Heaven!" Vaas raised his hand into the air, reaching out for the sky, as if he could grab it. "I saw a stairway to Heaven... and then..." His demeanor suddenly dropped. "I was thrown into Hell!" He screamed in rage, grabbing Mickey by the shoulders again, shaking her. "There was fire, and demons laughing at me, and I saw all those fuckers I killed!"

Before Vaas could finish anything else, he made a strange gagging sound. Mickey knew what that was, and immedately turned him away to let him start puking out his lunch.

"Come on, soldier." Mickey helped Vaas stand back up. "Let's get out of here."

She had to restrain him, in a stretcher, with leather straps holding back his arms, legs, body, and even a strap over his forehead to keep his head back. Vaas was violently thrashing around and screaming at anyone that came close to him. He kept screaming that he could feel spiders on his body, and the roof was being torn off by a cyclops.

"Vaas." Mickey had to sit next to Vaas. "You are seriously off your hinges now. Try sleeping, and we'll see how you are." Mickey pet Vaas' forehead as motherly comfort, and it calmed him down a little bit. He stopped thrashing for the moment. "I don't think you should be on these bath salts for so long now. Let's just leave it at this. I'm throwing out the rest." Mickey said to Vaas, knowing he probably wasn't listening, and drowning out any sound at the moment of his crash. "Want me to sing you a song?!" Mickey suddenly thought up, and excitedly asked Vaas.

Vaas took a long moment to respond. He barely nodded, because of the forehead strap keeping him back.

"I'm going to sing a jazz song. I know how much you like jazz." Mickey said, lastly petting Vaas' forehead, before she set up the camcorder on top of a worn dresser to film them both on point. "Do you still like Michael Bublé?" Mickey asked one more question. Vaas nodded his head. She then chose a song to sing.

_Stars shining bright above you, night breezes seem to whisper, "I love you"._  
_Birds singing in the sycamore tree, "Dream a little dream of me"._  
_Say "nighty-night" and kiss me. Just hold me tight and tell me you'll miss me._  
_While I'm alone and blue as can be, dream a little dream of me._

_Stars fading, but I linger on, dear._  
_Still craving your kiss, I'm longing to linger 'til dawn, dear._  
_Just saying this: Sweet dreams, 'til sunbeams find you._  
_Sweet dreams that leave all worries behind you._  
_But in your dreams, whatever they be, dream a little dream of me._

At the right moment of the break between the song, Vaas was whistling the song perfectly, staring up at the ceiling and eyelids slit his pale, green eyes. Mickey smiled, brushing the back of her fingers over the side of his head.

_Stars fading, but I linger on, dear._  
_Still craving your kiss, I'm longing to linger 'til dawn, dear._  
_Just saying this: Sweet dreams, 'til sunbeams find you._  
_Sweet dreams that leave all worries behind you._  
_But in your dreams, whatever they be, dream a little dream of..._  
_Dream a little dream of..._  
_Dream a little dream..._  
_Of me._

When sunshine hit.

"And, that's what you did!" Mickey stopped the camcorder halfway through the ending of the long video she made.

Vaas, still laying in the stretcher, but not strapped down, was feeling himself becoming overwhelmed by the aftermath of the bath salts. He was now thinking of all the trouble he was going to be in, once he had to investigate the mess he made in the camp. He rubbed his face tiredly with both hands, and sighed heavily, unsure of what else to ask. He seen the video, so it was all the answers he wanted.

"The aftermath might linger for a long while, so, just try to keep yourself under control when you go outside, or interact with others. Got it?" Mickey warned Vaas.

Vaas made a groan, feeling how sore his eyes were. "Augh! Why the fuck do my eyes hurt so much?!" He shouted, rubbing his closed eyes hard.

Mickey handed Vaas his water container to splash water on his face. "When you on your high, you didn't blink once." Mickey said, watching Vaas pour some water into his palm and splash it on his eyes. "You know, out of all the bath salt users that went cannibal, terrorist, or just plain out bonkers, you have topped the rest with destructive psychopath."

Vaas couldn't help but grin. "I feel special!" He bark out with a dumb grin, before he had to run out of the shack and puke again. "F-Fuck this shit." Vaas shouted after barfing out his stomach acid. "I'm just sticking to the old shit. Those fucking salts are worse than what the fucking doctor could ever come up with." Vaas crouched down to the ground, unable to standing up for very long. He covered his eyes with a hand, feeling how bright out it was on his dry eyes.

"Come on, soldier." Mickey helped Vaas up to his feet and walked him back inside his shack. "You should wait a few days until you feel well enough to start walking. Do you want something to eat?"

"No... I think I might just throw up again..."

**Rmemeber, dudes and babes. It's not funny to do bath salts anymore when you've realized you're eating your best friend's face.**


	6. Vaas the Knife

"Oh, the shark, babe, has such teeth, dear. And it shows them pearly whites!" Vaas was singing a jazz song to himself, while standing at a control panel, with his hand on a switch, that was going to lower down four unlucky rejects into the shark-infested water below the cliff. "Just a jackknife has old MacHeath, babe. And he keeps it, ah, out of sight." Vaas foot was tapping to the song he could hear in his head. He was also snapping his fingers to the same beat to the jazz song.

"Let us go!" One of the male rejects screamed, wiggling around in his rope-cocoon. "Don't do this!"

"Hey!" Vaas stopped humming the song. "I was just in a good musical mood, asshole! Just shut the fuck up!" Vaas rolled his eyes, growling under his breath. "Where the fuck was I? Oh yeah." Vaas put his hand on the lever of the control panel, and gave the four rejects one last salute, before pulling the lever down.

The ropes were immediately released from a tight, metallic grip of the machine, and the four rejects went plummeting down, into a circle of a shark family waiting for their flesh in the water.

The rejects were screaming in sheer agony, when the sharks began to rip them apart. Vaas, above the cliff, was back to snapping his fingers, walking off with a spring in his step, and singing the rest of the jazz song.

"Now on the sidewalk, a-huh, huh. Ooh, sunny morning, a-huh. Lies a body, just a-oozing life. Ekk! And someone's sneakin' 'round the corner. Could that someone be Mack the Knife?"

[Next]

Mickey and Vaas successfully climbed onto a giant boulder that was standing in the five-feet of water that was distant from the beach shore of the island. Before them, they could see the ocean from afar, long and wide, and island-less. Only an ocean and a giant, blue sky.

"I'm a little mermaid!" Vaas posed on his side, arm pumped up to the side of his head, and his leg bent upwards, on the boulder like a sculpted model.

"Ew!" Mickey was ready to kick him off the boulder. "I look better as a mermaid."

"That's so much fucking bullshit! Don't you know that I'm," Vaas brings out his singing voice again, failing miseraby at his high notes. "Part of your woooooorrrrrrllllllld!" Vaas sung out in his broken singing voice, timing it correctly with the waves crashing against the boulder beside them, with the wind blowing hard through their hair.

"I'm going to push you." Mickey giggled, thinking hard on her threat. "Get on the front of the boat, Vaas. You'll be My Little Mermaid!"

[Next]

"Vaas, let's watch these movies. It's all horror films!"

"Horror? Don't you have enough of that on this island?"

Vaas, in his shack with his close ally, Carlos, were both sharing a bag of cocaine, snorting thick lines of crushed up drug dirt into their nostrils.

"Is that the crazy girl?" Carlos asks Vaas, sniffling a couple of times. "She's a cutie."

"And still a fucking nutcase." Vaas reminded the man. "You could compliment her, though."

"Oh? Promise not to get jealous?" Carlos laughed, recieving the middle finger from Vaas.

Mickey walked into the shack with two DVD cases in her hand. "Let's watch Asian Horror films! I want to be scared!"

"Do you have that Suicide Manual movie? Or the Unholy Woman movie?" Vaas asked Mickey ask she walked across the room towards the two.

"Shutter and..." Mickey drifted off from her sentence when she noticed Carlos looking at her oddly.

Vaas noticed Mickey's confused look, and looked over at Carlos. His ally was staring at Mickey's face, with his eyes shifting only. Vaas knew that look: Carlos was checking out Mickey. He was giving her the up-down with his eyes, and there was a reason why. Mickey always dressed the same, but in different colored-clothes. Summing up the style she wore, she dressed like the old school Lara Croft: red tank top and brown short-shorts. She always dressed like that, which was something Vaas became use to, but Carlos hadn't seen her this close before.

"SHUTTER." Mickey shouted the names of the DVD cases she brought, startling Carlos. "AND SUICIDE CLUB."

"OKAAAAY." Vaas also shouted back. "LET'S WATCH SUICIDE CLUB."

"Yaaaay..." Mickey whispers the little cheer under a raspy voice, before turning around to the DVD player and television set.

Vaas smacked Carlos by the shoulder hard, getting his attention. "Quit checking out my pirate lady. She's seriously out of your league."

[Next]

"Who's next on the list? Brunette or blondie?"

At the Pit, where the rejects were killed and tossed into a giant, dug-up hole in the ground. Upon a short stage where rejects were handcuffed and on their knees to beg for forgiveness, Vaas was up there as well, with a pistol in his hand, and pacing in front of them like a shark. Vaas was now left with two girls - a blonde, and a brunette.

"I'll think about making your death quick." Vaas pointed at the brunette with the gun barrel. "Because you? You're okay-looking." Vaas glanced at the blonde. "This one? Really fucking ugly." Vaas shot the brunette quickly in the forehead, her body collapsed with a loud thud.

The blonde couldn't scream, because she was so shocked. She actually went limp.

"Hey!" Vaas screamed at the blonde. "Look at me." There was no respond. Vaas rudely kicked her at the stomach, seeing that she went slump. "Holy shit. I literally scared her to death!" Vaas felt a wicked smile grow on his face, along with laughing wildly. "Holy shit! Mickey, did you see that?!"

"O. M. F. G!" Mickey ran up to the stage, waving her arms at Vaas. "I was waiting for you to scare someone to death. I thought that term could never exist... until now!" Mickey clapped her hands cheerfully. "I want to see more rejects get scared to death naturally! How exciting!"

"Bring in the next reject!" Vaas ordered.

The last reject was a middle-aged man, wearing a strapping, black suit, and a bright, red tie. He looked like he were a sugar daddy to a couple of mind-controlling sluts that he thought were in love with him. And, it was true. The other girls that he had along with him were the two girls Vaas just killed. Mickey hated men like that.

"Ew! He's going to shark for me next, Vaas!" Mickey mocked the middle-aged man.

"He's not going to shark for you next, guapa." Vaas said, feeling Mickey hide behind his back. "He sharks you, you shark back. Financially, of course."

"Please..." The suited man begged, while being pushed down to his knees. "I'll pay you in money. I'll give you as much as you want! Just, please, don't do this!" He was tearing up, with streams of water running down his old face. Vaas couldn't help but make a "yuck" face at that.

"You wanted to buy love. Not earn it." Vaas loaded up his pistol with new rounds. "You wouldn't know true love if it washed up on your island's beach, man. You wouldn't understand the values in romance, like every lucky guy would." Vaas cocked the pistol back and held the gun barrel up between the suited man's eyes. "It's not here that counts, hermano." Vaas used his freehand to point up at his head. "It's here." Vaas maneuvered the gun down to the chest of the man's body, where the heart was beating. "Like the lazy ocean hugs the shore, hold her close. Sway with meeeee!"

_BANG._

The suited man dropped dead instantly.

Vaas lowered the gun back into his hip holster and turned to Mickey.

Mickey made a small smile. "Was that Dean Martin I heard?"

Vaas grinned widely, and started to mimic the singing voice of Dean Martin's song Sway.

"Other dancers maybe on the floor, dear. But my eyes will see only you! Only you have that magic technique! When we sway, I go weeeeeaak!" Vaas picked up the suited man's body and started dancing with it, like a miserable ball room dance. As much as the suited man's body was leaking body, Vaas still danced with him. "I can hear the sound of violins, long before it begins. Make me thrill as only you know how. Sway me smooth. Sway me now!"

Vaas dropped the body and danced his way to Mickey, handing her with his hands in an awkward fashion, trying to settle the ball room dance position well enough. But, Mickey laughed and danced along with him. The two were just spinning around in moving circles on stage, hopping and dancing at the same time, laughing and singing with broken and tuned voices. The pirates watching were clapping in rhythm or laughing at how energetic Vaas was becoming.

Mickey couldn't stop smiling. She hadn't smiled that hard since she murdered that entire family back home in her homeland. She could literally hear the violins in her ears playing jovially, as she looked on at how Vaas was singing the jazz song in a broken tone voice, trying to mimick Dean Martin's singing technique. The sounds of the pirates clapping in beat and laughing along was something Mickey had almost felt before back home.

She felt at home.

"When the marimba rhythms start to play, dance with me. Make me sway. Like a lazy ocean that hugs the shore, hold me close. Sway me more!"

"You're starting the song over, nimrod!"

**Story continues forth with short beauty and eternal dumbness. :p**


	7. Understanding Beautiful Insanity

"Smoking is not good for you, Hoyt. You should stop before you get cancer." Mickey warned Hoyt, sitting in his office with the boss.

"Ha! That's a good one!" Hoyt couldn't stop barking out laughter. "I can't believe much idiots we've got dropping into this island lately. It's like watching rain fall. They're just hailing this island like a storm. More slaves brings us more business." Hoyt turns in his leather office chair to the large, opened windows of his office, looking out at the view of the docks before him. "Ah, but too bad we've got a handful of parasites bugging our business. Got to swat them, before they just become irritating."

Mickey couldn't help but chuckle. "Parasite. Bugging. Heehee."

"Sit here, Mickey. I'm blocking the docks." Hoyt motioned his hand to his side of the desk.

Mickey obliged, getting up from her chair and walking around the table to sit down on the edge of the table.

"Just think of the slavers around the world that want these slaves. Just think!" Hoyt looked at Mickey. It looked like she was thinking extremely hard on the idea. "So much slaves, but this world is still turning with so many worthless sods. Worthless enough to be thrown into a jail cell and rot to death." Hoyt sighed in thought. "I could just take the world into my hands and rip it apart."

"The world turns on two things. Chaos and order." Mickey speaks up. "We have to have the chaotic syndrome overtake us for the moment, before we are controlled enough by a higher power that gives us what we wanted. Order." Mickey pats the top of Hoyt's leather chair, resting her arm on it after. "Bugs will be in the way of order, and will try to being back the chaos. Order is necessary."

"That's deep, hon." Hoyt looks at Mickey again. "But, you're right."

"It's just like asking why do we laugh."

"Hm... _why_ do we laugh, dear? Why do we _cry_? Why do we _bleed_? Hmm?"

Mickey shrugged to the question.

"There's a reason to everything. Just like answering..." Hoyt thought for a moment. He tapped the tip of his cigar on an ash tray, and went back to smoking it. "Why do we kill?"

"Because we feel like it." Mickey merely answered. "Just because we feel like it..."

"Then... why did you kill before?" Hoyt asked Mickey. It was a question that meant too much to her, in her heart. She knew he wasn't asking about the recent deaths she's done on the island. "Why did you kill that family back in your homeland? Why was it necessary then?" Hoyt was always blunt to a question he asked. Nothing much covered up. He would asked straight up, but who could blame him?

Mickey thought for a long moment, staring out the large window pane. "I was..." She tried thinking of the best word for it. "... Angry."

_Mickey was never the bad child in the family that would suddenly grow up to a serial killer. She was always the good girl who listened to her parents and looked up to her big brother as a role model._

_Her brother, named Johnny, was joining the army, qualified to become one of the best in his years, fighting and leading. Mickey was very proud of him, and always wanted to become just as great as he was._

_But, the only problem was that Johnny and father never got along great. Who could blame him? Father was a real trip, when he was drunk. He would forget who he was sometimes, when he was drunk. He would violently lash out at the kids and blame them for making things so difficult. Mother was not usually around to see these things, because she often ran out into the city and escape his constant bickering. It also meant she abandoned the kids often with father. Mickey stopped looking up to her years ago._

_When the years began to pass by quickly, Mickey was in her teens when she heard the terrible news from the marines Johnny was in._

_Johnny died in fight._

_The world felt like it was turning the other direction that day forth. Mickey couldn't stop crying in her bed after hearing that her big brother was dead. He was the only person that really cared for Mickey. He even promised her that he would come back safe and sound. He promised..._

_When the news hit father, it hit him like a pile of bricks. He was feeling the extreme guilt for all the years he's put on Johnny, and wanted nothing more but to see his son again and tell him that he was sorry for everything. He was gone, though, and father was unable to think straight that day on. His drinking began to decrease, though. Every time he saw a bottle of brandy, he would just want to turn away, and cry._

_His minimum drinking began to bring him and Mickey closer, though. They began to see eye-to-eye, and not fight as often as they use to. It was somehow a blessing from Johnny, but Mickey still wondered how long would this go on._

_The luck stopped when Mickey stepped into the kitchen of their house, and saw father at the table, facing the opened window to the suburban neighborhood they lived in. Piles of paper were scattered everywhere on the table surface, and Mickey could see that they were unpaid bills and debt he owed greatly to his boss. Father never told Mickey about the amount of debt they were in, and it seemed to have caught up to him that day._

_Without knowing Mickey was at the kitchen doorway behind him, father raised a pistol to the side of his head, and shot himself._

_Blood splattered on the table surface and papers like a bucket of paint. Father's body went slump in the chair, with his raised arm dropping the pistol on the floor with a clunk. Mickey saw her father kill himself right before her eyes._

_That explosion of the bullet fired made something in Mickey snap. She lost two important men in her life, and now, she had no one._

_That was the day she had gone to kill that family of a wife, husband and two kids. If she had no one, then they shouldn't have each other._

_Running off to the unnamed island of Rook by airplane with whatever money she still had left from home, Mickey couldn't stop crying the entire flight there. She had to run far away, and leave her memories behind. That island was the only place on the map unknown, but she didn't care. She had thought of killing herself there before, if she hadn't been captive by Vaas and his pirate crew._

_Mickey was caged up in a bamboo trap when Vaas left her. She managed her way through the trap and started to run blindly through the jungle brush and trees, unable to figure out where she was from start. Everything looked the exact same. Nothing seemed to have changed._

_That was where Mickey was stopped by another escaped captive. A pregnant woman, who looked like she was at the last month of her pregnancy. She begged Mickey to help her escape, and help her get her baby out safe as well. Her crying and pleading made Mickey's mind reel back to the crying mother she had killed in that family, when she was begging to keep her two kids alive, and herself._

_Mickey couldn't take the memories any longer. She threw the pregnant woman off of her, and grabbed a large rock that she had to pick up with both hands, and began to smash it against the woman's face. She caved in the woman's face, crushing her facial bones, and teeth. Even if Mickey could hear the bones crackling and blood splattering, she continued to kill the pregnant woman. Mickey had even stopped to throw the rock aside and grab a giant tree trunk, and pierce it straight through the pregnant woman's belly. Mickey wasn't crying anymore, when the woman became silent._

_That was where an exhausted Mickey was found by Hoyt. He saw the entire thing, and found great potential in her. She was not as useless as he once saw her. She was quite strong, and able to kill without feeling for the others._

"You are more than special, my child." Hoyt patted Mickey's shoulder, as she still sat at his desk. "Two years on the island, and you still find ways to make everyday brighter. I would have never guessed you had such a dark past, though."

Mickey was silent for a moment, with memories reeling in her head like a bad movie. She then blinked, coming back into reality, and made a smile. "I guess I take it from Johnny and father."

"Poor sods would have been proud to see how you've done today." Hoyt finished his cigar and crushed the rest into the ash tray. Hoyt sighed to himself, as Mickey did at the same time. "How old are you Mickey?"

"That's not nice to ask a lady!" Mickey gasped dramatically.

"You look especially young... are you twenty-two?"

"I'm turning twenty-three this year."

_I often wonder hard about what I am meant to be. I constantly think back to when I had my first kill on Rook Island, and how things had changed for the... better? I don't know if it were even a good thing to do, but, my life is turned. Still... what am I meant to be? Happy to kill? Or happy to be someone else for the longest moments of my life?_

**Something highly inspired by Michael Bublé's song "Home". This chapter is something more than funny. More of understanding the fair maiden and her own issues she never includes, but rather excludes. Even the most happiest could be the most saddest of them all in this world.**

**More to come soon, in the next chapter!**


	8. Let's Fly Together

"Vaas. I want to fly."

"What?"

Mickey sat in the window sill of Vaas's shack, staring out at the view of the camp below the hill. Vaas was relaxing in his cot, smoking a cigarette.

Vaas looked up at Mickey, with a confused look. "You mean you want to sprout wings and soar, like a little bird?"

"Yeah." Mickey responds quietly, without hesitating. Vaas drops silent. "I want to just get off the ground for a while and forget everything was here in the first place. I want to fly out to a place no one can find me in. I want to just forget things for a moment." Mickey sighed and reached her hand out to the sky, seeing a large ground of clouds in the sky forming together. "I wish I was like a Pegasus, so I can open my wings and fly off to anywhere I wanted."

Once Vaas finished his cigarette, he crushed it into an ash tray and clapped his hands together loudly, startling Mickey. "Let's go fly then!"

"Say whaaaat?"

[World Of Machines]

Vaas took Mickey out to a giant warehouse that looked old and abandoned. Parked armed vehicles sat outside of the warehouse, and a couple of motorbikes that looked recently driven by other pirates. As Mickey looked on at the spectacular bikes and vehicles, Vaas pushed open the iron doors to the warehouse, easily with his strength. The doors screamed metallically from age as Vaas stepped inside the darkness. Light poured into the warehouse, as Mickey followed Vaas into the dark.

Inside, dozens of lights from the high, copper ceiling turned on with loud booming sounds. Mickey's good eye was almost ready to pop out of her head when she saw what was hidden within the dark before.

Dozens, maybe one-hundred, man-made machinery of old aircrafts and armed, battlefield vehicles filled the room with the smell of metal rust and gray. Tanks from WWII sat untouched behind 1920 motorcars that brought back the history of thin wheels and built body parts. Armed trucks from back them, that carried soldiers in the back with cover, also parked inside the warehouse, untouched, collecting dust and cobwebs.

In the back, there were aircrafts waiting for Mickey to gaze upon. They were the jets used by the Japanese during WWII. Titanium jets that looked aged and historic. Other aircrafts from the American time, and Germanic time, also crowded the back space.

Vaas looked at Mickey from over his shoulder, and saw how awe-struck she looked from all the machinery before her. She wasn't even moving.

"It's a fucking candy store in here!" Vaas snapped Mickey out of her state of mind with a shout.

"Kyaaaaaaah!" Mickey couldn't help it. She immediately went running to every armed vehicle, tank, old school vehicles, and anything else she could touch. She looked like an overly-excited five-year-old in a toy store, just begging to ask her parent to buy her every single thing she eyeballed. "I will drive you one day, my _precious_..." Mickey hugged a giant tank made from Germany. Her eye glittered to all the thoughts of destruction she'd cause on the island.

"You will, one day." Vaas patted Mickey on her back. "Let's just go flying first."

Mickey made a gasp in realization. "Oh my Gooood!" Mickey bolted to the back of the warehouse to where the aircrafts were waiting for her.

[I Believe I Can Fly]

"Brace yourself, for all will pay! Help is on the way!" Vaas screamed out singing, in the air, through the loud motor of his aircraft blocking his voice.

In the sky, islanders could see Japanese fighter jets flying together through the sky. None of them panicked, when they realized that the aircrafts were from the machinery collect of the warehouse. Black jets streamed from the sky in such speed, high above the large island of Rook.

Mickey was in the second jet, flying the craft like a professional. She didn't seriously have the technique to fly the jet, but, she had only intuition, and her intuition was telling her to set her soul on fire that day, in the burning sky. She was ready to burst out laughing in joy as she felt the wind blow through her red hair, or just sing along with Vaas as she could feel the push of her aircraft-goggles pressing against her face.

Vaas continued singing in his broken musical voice a song from Les Friction called "World On Fire". He dramatically points at Mickey from beside her,

"Girl, I will cover you, when the sky comes crashing in. I'll go the distance, lead the way to your darkest sin. Whoa-oa-oa! You know there's something coming down from the sky above!" He grins at Mickey with a stupid look on his face.

Mickey wasn't looking at him, but, she could just feel that grin plastered on him. She couldn't help but also start singing along with him.

"World on fire with a smoking sun, stops everything and everyone. Brace yourself, for all will pay! Help is on the way!" They sang along together, in broken harmony.

Their jets swooped passed above a dozen palm trees at the edge of the island, scaring a couple of pirates that were hunting. Vaas barked out a sinister cackle at their frightened faces before keeping up with Mickey in the air. Their speed almost shook every part of the island ground they sped passed, and even made the ocean waves tremble back into the water. It was like Mickey was in a real-life fighter flight video game, but she could actually die from crash.

"I want to fly forever!" Mickey was ready to start crying in happiness.

"Louder!" Vaas screamed at her.

"I want to fly _forever_!" Mickey screamed again.

"_Louder_!"

"FOREVER." Mickey gave it her all, now pulling down the handles to the jet to make the craft fly higher. Vaas followed suit.

"I pick YouTube, forever!" Vaas also screamed out.

They were ruling the sky with speed, until Vaas heard a call come in from the radio in his jet. He picked up the jet and pressed the button on the side of it, bringing up to his lips, and spoke. "What did you say, fucker?"

"_We've got someone you have to meet! Bring Mickey, too!_" It was Vaas' right-hand man, Ronnie. "_We captured some bitch that claims she knows who Mickey is, and that she wants to find her! Get back here, now!_"

Vaas' expression fell. His ears pierced into silence, once his mind went blank for a moment. All he could really hear now was Mickey's jovial laughter and air passing over his aircraft-goggles. Who was this person?

"What was that, Vaas!" Mickey shouted towards Vaas, still grinning widely.

"... We've got to land back down."

**A story of something I had also wished for my entire life. I had always wanted to fly, and see the world above the sky. I want to see myself pursue clouds and fly towards a sunset, and never come back. No more grounds. Just gravity.**

**What happens next? Find out, in the next chapter!**


	9. I Can't Stop What Can't Be Killed

Back down on land, Vaas and Mickey left the jets nearby the warehouse, to quickly find where Ronnie and the others were at.

A person the pirates captured earlier claimed to know Mickey, and wanted to see her.

Mickey's heart was racing, because she was unsure of what could be waiting for her at the Pit. She could hardly remember any familiar faces from home, so, this would somehow be completely frightening for her to face the unknown once more.

At the Pit, Ronnie was found with the captive in his grip. She was acting up earlier, and had to be restrained. She was a frail woman, that looked as if she were reaching her age of fifty. She had a mess of red hair, and big brown eyes, just like Mickey did. She was letting age hit her hard, from the way her face was becoming wrinkled, as well as her body. She looked like an alcoholic, letting everything fall on her.

"You know this bitch, Mick?" Ronnie asked Mickey, turning the woman to Mickey.

The woman looked up at Mickey, and she looked like she was about ready to faint on the spot. "Oh... my God!" The woman cried out, covering her mouth with her hands, in an awe-stuck startle. Mickey jumped, scared. "Oh my God! You're alive! You're... alive!" The woman's eyes watered up in tears, with streams running down her aged cheeks. "My baby girl!"

"Huuh?" Mickey stepped back from the woman. "I... I don't know who you are." Mickey tried assuring her. "You've must have mistaken me for some other girl..."

"No! It's really you! You disappeared for two years from England!" The woman cried out. Mickey's eye pupil dilated to the words. "You vanished, and I thought you just killed yourself after Johnny and your father died!" Mickey made a petrified gasp, loudly, to the sound of her brother's name being said. "I was going on a vacation with my friends, and, this was the island we took to go for a break. I saw you earlier, at that warehouse! With..." The woman pointed furiously at Vaas. "With that psycho!"

Vaas blinked, looked over his shoulder, and saw no one behind him. He looked back to the woman, and pointed at himself, with a dumbfounded face. "Me?"

"Yes! You! Who is he! What does he want!" The aged woman screamed for an answer. Ronnie kept her back from trying to pursue Vaas.

"Hey!" Mickey defended Vaas, stepping in front of him. "I don't know who you are, and I don't even know why you know my family's names, but just keep your fucking nose out of my business!" Mickey screamed at the woman, pointing right back at her. "And stay away from Vaas!"

"What...?" The woman sounded completely flabbergasted. "... How dare you talk to your mother like that?!"

Mickey almost wanted to laugh. "Mother! I have _no_ mother! She abandoned me ions ago, and I had no one else but my father and brother!" Mickey stepped forward to the woman. Mickey and this woman were the same height. "Don't bring up my family!" Mickey growled in her face.

Then, the woman opened her mouth once more. "Stella Hutchinson, how dare you threaten your mother!"

That name pierced straight through Mickey's brain like a gunshot. Her disconnected mind suddenly plugged back into the memories she tried so hard to avoid, or simply forgotten. Mickey put her hands over her head, stepping back from the woman that called herself mother. Mickey could suddenly vision an image of a younger, beautiful mother that had the spitting-image of herself. Red hair, bronze eyes, pale skin, and a sinister smile.

Mickey stumbled backwards, bumping into Vaas.

"Mickey!" Vaas grabbed Mickey from the back of her shoulders.

"No! Don't touch me!" Mickey suddenly screamed, throwing Vaas' hands off of her. "I... I need to... go..." Mickey could hardly think of an excuse to leave. She immediately left the Pit, still clutching her hands over her head, trying to process everything that just happened so fast.

Vaas watched Mickey leave the Pit, seeing how confused and frightened she expressed. Once she was out of view, Vaas slowly turned to the woman.

"You." Vaas growled like a snarling K-9, making the other pirates step back from the Pit.

The woman was released by Ronnie, because he, too, was frightened. When her arms were free, she was delivered a strong punch to her stomach.

The blow to the stomach was so strong, the woman could feel her stomach organ ready to burst. She dropped to her knees, holding her stomach with her hands, and coughed up saliva onto the ground. She cried out some more, to the agonizing pain.

"You should have died back in your homeland, you fucking bitch!" Vaas screamed right down at the woman. "You had the fucking indecency to just step onto _my _island, and try to steal _Mickey _from me, like you own her?!" Vaas grabbed the woman by the top of her head, balling his fist full of red hair, and lifted her aged face to him. "You fucking listening? I want you no where near Mickey. I want you thrown into the fucking cage, like a fucking animal, and let the jungle eat you alive!"

The woman croaked out something, from all the coughing. "Her name is... S-S-Stella Hu-Hutchinson!"

Vaas released his hand from the woman's hair and immediately threw his hands down onto her neck, wrapping them tightly around her throat, and started to try attempted strangulation. He threw her backwards onto the ground to choke her down, while screaming, "Her name is Mickey! Her name is Mickey!"

"Vaas! This isn't your kill, dammit!" Ronnie jumped in, grabbing Vaas by the shoulders to try pulling him off of the woman. "Vaas, stop it!"

Other pirates joined in, trying to rip off the tyrant from the woman. Eventually, the pirates managed to pry Vaas' hands off of the woman's neck, and drag him away from her, as far as they could take him, while he thrashed and shouted profound language. "Get the fuck off of me!" Vaas snarled deep, his voice crackled in fury. "She'll _never_ take Mickey from me! She'll _never_ take her from me!"

[What Am I Suppose To Do?]

_Do you remember what I told you, Stella? When I go onto that battlefield?_

_I... I can't remember. Tell me again, brother! Are you going to kill lots and lots of bad guys?_

_Heh-heh. I hope so. I just hope I don't come back home with that disorder. Well, I think I won't. I'm pretty fantastic._

_Brother, tell me!_

_Okay, okay... I only tell you this, because father would call me crazy if he heard me. When I go out onto that battlefield soon, do not be surprised if I come back or not. There's always a slim chance of survival in war, and a higher chance of losing an arm, leg, or my head. But, don't be afraid if I keep gone. Just remember something, that'll surely make you smile every time you think of me._

_What is it, brother?_

_Remember that I had always prayed for your happiness, as you grow up. You are intelligent, and a pretty young girl. You must not let fear crumble you, as I tell myself. And, remember this... If I die in that battlefield, I'm going to look straight up at that sky above me, and hold my head high. I'll even grin._

_Brother, you're so cool! I want to be just like you when I grow up!_

"I want to be... just like you...?" Mickey cried silently to herself, in the corner of her darkened shack. Windows were closed. Door was shut. Everything was dark, and quiet enough for Mickey to think to herself. "Am I like you, Johnny? Have I failed to become what you've wished for, or am I just a lost cause...?"

Through the time alone, Mickey had begun to feel the wheels in her head begin to turn correctly. She could remember everything from her childhood that she had forgotten. She remembered her mother's face, and how she looked just like her. She could even remember the constant memories of mother and father arguing, while she had to sit upstairs with Johnny, and try to forget everything.

"I wish you never came back, mother..." Mickey whispered to herself, scratching her nails against her knees. "I wish you just stayed away from me..."

"Mickey!" A familiar voice outside of the shack called Mickey. It was Vaas. "Hey, Mickey! Open up! I want to fucking talk!"

"Door's opened." Mickey just muttered loudly, enough for him to hear.

When Vaas pushed open the door, he was met by a trashed room. The whole room was wrecked, like a storm just blew through the shack and left it like this. The furniture was throw, paper scattered across the floor, ripped apart or crumpled. The cot was ripped up, down from the legs to the cut-in mattress. Mickey stabbed the knife into the wall, and just left it. She curled up into the corner of her shack.

"Mickey." Vaas climbed over the rubble and got to Mickey's side. "What the fuck happened?"

"Mom came back, that's what." Mickey wiped her face, trying to get rid of the streams on her face. "Everything is coming back to me now. I remember everything back from home. I feel like I just woke up from a dream, though... and I'm back into the nightmare..." Mickey pressed her lips together, shaking her head slowly. "I wanted to think of tomorrow, not yesterday... I wanted to think she was dead, not alive." Mickey then looked up at Vaas, turning herself to his direction. "... My real name is Stella Hutchinson. It truly is..."

Vaas didn't know if he wanted to hear the truth from her. But, at the same time, it felt like he should have known this day would happen.

He sat himself down next to Mickey, with his back against the wooden wall. He wrapped his arm around her shoulders.

"I wanted to forget everything." Mickey continued, laying her head on Vaas' shoulder tiredly. "I wanted to think everyone in my life just died. I wanted to believe that I had no one else to go back home to, or even give a thought to."

"I get it." Vaas nods his head. "I'm the fucking same with you. I just wanted to say _fuck it_ to my dead parents, and forget I ever had a sister in the first place." Vaas sighed heavily with thought, lifting his hand up to the side of Mickey's head to comb his fingertips through her red hair. "I wanted to just believe no one existed in my life." He looked down at Mickey, seeing that she was staring off into nothingness, thinking hard. "You know something, guapa? That woman came her with another man and kid."

Mickey just made a "pfft" through her lips and rubbed her face. "So... she's replaced father and Johnny already?" She couldn't help but snort. "What a fucking life..." But, Mickey sighed to the idea, and shook her head. "I should be such a hypocrite, though."

"About what?" Vaas asks.

"I replaced my memories with _you_." Mickey suddenly says. Vaas dropped silent.

Mickey sat up onto her knees and embraced Vaas tightly, arms wrapped around his shoulders, and her head on the crook of his neck and shoulder.

Vaas' eyes widened. He hadn't been embraced like this in so long. He almost forgot what it was like to be held. But, he didn't want the feeling to end. He also wrapped his arms around Mickey and pulled her close. She was now sitting in his lap, legs curled up, and her arms still around him, with her head on his shoulder. It was like holding a crying child in his arms, and telling her everything was fine. Vaas crossed his legs to spoon her in his arms, and just hold her.

"I'm sorry." Mickey whispered. "I shouldn't tell you these things."

Vaas shook his head. "It's cool. I hadn't cried in three years." Vaas rubbed his eyes, feeling water in them. "Fucking hurts like a bitch."

"Three years... and not a single tear drop. That's torture."

"Not really, when you've got a crazy girl to make you laugh." Vaas smiled, able to sense the big grin on Mickey's face.

Mickey leaned back to look up at Vaas. "And I've got a psychotic pirate that makes everyday epic!" Mickey saw Vaas make a half-hearted laugh to that.

Suddenly, Vaas leaned in to kiss Mickey on the cheek. Mickey's good eye widened in surprise. Vaas made a nervous smirk, and leaned his head down on her shoulder. "Sorry. I just wanted to do that."

"You were brave enough to do so." Mickey patted Vaas' back as assurance. "But, it's okay. You were always the daring one."

[A Decision To Make Up]

"Where's my mother?" Mickey asked Ronnie, when evening hit the island.

"The crazy bitch? She's in the cage with the guy and kid she brought with her." Ronnie pointed over his shoulder with his thumb, sitting on a wooden crate, polishing a machine gun he found earlier. "Hey, girly. Can I call you Stella?"

"Fuck that." Vaas suddenly appeared, startling Ronnie. "You call her that again, I'll break your neck." Vaas threatened, with all honesty. Ronnie nodded his head fast. "Come on, let's find that crazy woman." Vaas and Mickey walked off into the jungle path, following a trail of drag marks that appeared bamboo. She was probably not far off. "Hey, c'mere." Vaas opened one arm out to Mickey.

Ronnie noticed that Mickey responded by getting close to Vaas' side, and being wrapped by his arm. When he got the idea into his head, his face fell into either horror or pure shock. "Oh my God, Carlos is going to die, when he hears this!"

Out in the jungle path, Mickey could hear the familiar rambling of the same mother she once knew, screaming at the pirates for locking her and her new family up in the oversized cage. When the two found the area, they saw that the three were locked up in the bamboo cage, being guarded by pirates ignoring everything they were saying. The new man mother was with was childishly yelling profanity, while mother was trying to hush the five-year-old boy in her arms.

"Let me see them." Mickey passed the pirates, walking towards the cage.

"Stella!" Mother cried out to Mickey. "Do you remember now? Do you remember me?"

"Yes, mother. I do." Mickey nodded her head, standing in front of her. "I apologize for how I acted earlier. And, Vaas is also sorry for trying to strangle you to death." Vaas made a snort to that sentence. Mickey just waved him off. "But, you and these two cannot stay on this island any longer. You need to pass."

"Pass?" The man went to Mickey, standing next to mother. "Look here. I've no clue what you want, or who you are, but you better not do anything fucking stupid!"

"Shut your fucking face." Mickey pulled out a pistol from her hip holster, pointing the barrel straight at the man's forehead. "I could just blow your brains out, if you say another profound word to my men one more time. Keep you fucking mouth shut. You're not at home. You're on an island, got it?" Mickey's demeanor changed. She sounded coldly emotionless to every word she said. Her good eye held no spark of feeling or regret. "I want to make this perfectly clear." Mickey pulled back her gun from the frightened man. "When I say I want you to pass, I mean I want you off of this island, right now. No thought or question. Just go."

Mother, the man, and the little boy were silent.

"Good." Mickey nodded her head at the three petrified family members. "Also, to make things more simple for you: if I let you go, you must keep your mouths shut about this place. Never speak a word about this, because if I find out that there's going to be trouble coming to the island, because of your big mouths, I'm going to go back to England, and rip your fucking lips right off of your faces, spoon out your eyeballs with my own thumbs, break your fucking necks with my bare hands, rip off your faces with a dagger, and cook your bodies over a huge bonfire, while I'm cooking marshmallows on the side. Deal?" Mickey looks directly at the man, sensing that he felt intimidated by her. "And don't think I haven't done that before, asshole. I'll enjoy watching you burn over a Chapel in Hell, when we meet again."

"Stella..." Mother looked on at her daughter, in horror. "... What do you mean...?"

"No talk. Just go." At the moment Mickey said that, the cage was broke open by Ronnie. The opening dropped open. "I said go!" Mickey screamed at the three. "That tourist jet is about to take off. Just go down that path, and you'll find the jet. Just fucking leave! _Now._"

Without being able to give a hug or say goodbye, mother and the new family in her life went running down the path Mickey told them to follow, and disappeared in the distance from her viewpoint. After a while, the sound of a jet was heard being taken off the ground, and the pirates could see the jet flying off quickly, into the evening sky.

"Woooow." Vaas clapped his hands loudly. "That was beautiful, guapa. And you didn't kill them! That's ten-times more amazing!"

Mickey remained silent, momentarily, until she responded with a sounding smirk. "You can't stop what can't be killed."

"What can't you kill, mi chica?"

"... Memories."

**- _Save a place inside the walls of your cluttered mind. Let's listen for silence, and sail back to when you crumble and decay. There's no love in this violence. No love anymore, no love anymore, no love anymore, no love anymore. _(Les Friction's "Torture").**

**When memories come back again, you realize that not every good or bad can be killed by forgetting. You must choose to let go, or crumble with it.**

**I may draw this moment of Vaas and Mickey soon, and post it as the main image of the tale. (Yes. I am also an artist.)**

**More to come soon, in the next chapter!**


	10. Drunken Laughter

"Uggghh... where's the nearest... casino when you need one?!"

"Casinos are for... _old _people!"

It was never like Mickey to drink. She dreaded the sight of alcohol, because of her father's past of drinking and acting violent, but, since that night of encountering her mother in two years, she wanted nothing more but to wash out the memory, by drinking down shots of vodka and mixed drinks. This was the first night she ever had any liquor on the island. And it was even her first time drinking alongside Vaas, since he was more of a drinker than she.

Both the pirate lords had just left the pub, and were stumbling awkwardly through a dirt road in the evening together. Mickey tried her best to keep her composure, while Vaas kept pausing and walking, so that he wouldn't tumble over on his two left feet.

"Fuck it." Vaas just slurred, finally tumbling onto the ground, his body flopped like a dropped book.

Mickey saw him fall and tried to turn around and laugh at him, but she also tumbled on her two feet, and fell backwards. She didn't wail out in pain. She just giggled loudly at herself for falling over like a log. "I'm so silly!" Mickey giggled more, trying to pull herself up. She saw through her dizzy vision that Vaas was also trying to get up, halfway standing to victor. "Move faster, you poor sod!" Mickey shouted at him.

"Shaadup, and don't tell me what to do!" Vaas pointed at Mickey with both index fingers, trying to keep his body steady. "I don't need another leg! I got... O-Oh shit!" Vaas panicked. "Wh-Where are my legs?!"

"Aaahhh!" Mickey also screamed. "They're below your torso!"

"How the fuck did they get there!" Vaas screamed down at his legs. "Start moving forward, swines." He commanded his immobile legs, with no response. "These motherfuckers wouldn't know how to move, if their lives depended on it!" Vaas looked down at his legs, unknowingly falling forward on his face.

When he hit the ground with a loud thud, Mickey was laughing nonstop at him. "You silly, silly drunk, you!" Mickey pointed at him, laughing some more. She crawled her way towards him, helping him turn over to his back. "Vaas, I've... I've got to tell you something before I forget." Mickey eventually turned him over to his back, seeing him chuckling to himself with a stupid grin on his face. "Wh... Wh... Where do you live?"

"Oh my God... I think..." Vaas pointed straight up at a short hill, where his exact shack was sitting at. "I _think_ I live there, on the boulevard of broken dreams." Vaas quietly said, but then busted a gut when he saw Mickey's fallen expression. "Let's go up the hill!"

"F... Fine..." Mickey pushed herself up to her feet, trying her best to pull Vaas up to his own feet.

[Inside The Drunk Shack]

"I've got to tell you something, Mickey. I've got to tell you something!"

"What? What? What is it, babycakes?"

Vaas pointed straight at Mickey, and slurred, "I love you." He squinted hard at Mickey. "I love you like a love song."

"And I you." Mickey made a stupid smile on her face, that stretched out ear-to-ear. "And I you, mi amour."

"No. Really." Vaas moved towards Mickey, moving his arms in front of himself, looking like he was trying to walk through an invisible crowd towards Mickey. "I mean it, girly. I love you like a love song. All I need is a beauty and a beat, with you. I just died in your arms toniiiggghhht!" Vaas dropped down next to Mickey on the cot. "You make me laugh! I fucking hate laughing, too." He pointed his finger in Mickey's face again, and started to sing a song. "If I was your boyfriend, I'd never let you goooo... Something, something, something, I can't think of the rest. And I sing like a garbage crusher, when I see you next to meeeee. If I was your boyfriend, I'd ask you to take me home... Take me hooome!"

"Sssshhhhh." Mickey put both her hands on Vaas' face. "I think I hear the lions sleep tonight."

Vaas immediately went to the window of the shack and pushed it open. "Hey! Shut the fuck up! The lions sleep toniiiiight!"

"Sssshhhh!" Mickey pulled Vaas back into the shack, and shut the window. "Don't scream!"

"I don't take orders from anyone!" Vaas was back on his cot. "But, I'll listen to you, because you the best. You the, you the best!" He gave her a thumbs-up.

The two nimrods were drunk out of their minds, after taking too many shots of liquor. Drinking Devil's Springs and Captain Morgan just made them purely stupid and overall unpredictable by actions. They were also confessing things to each other that were obviously secretive ideals they would never exploit.

"Hug me, what's-your-name!" Mickey opened her arms up to Vaas, stumbling towards him.

"I can't remember my name, either, whatever-you-name-was!"

Both of the pirates embraced, and laughed hard when Mickey couldn't stand up straight, and just sat down on Vaas' lap.

"You're. So. Kind." Vaas taps his fingertip over Mickey's nose. "I'll kiss you like the Pope does." Vaas cupped Mickey's face in his hands, and roughly kissed her on the forehead, breaking the kiss seconds later with a loud "mwah!"

"Ekk. Unattractive." Mickey put her hand in Vaas' face. "Just kiss me on the cheek, freakshow."

Vaas didn't listen to that idea, of course. He kissed Mickey on her neck, feeling her skin crawl uncomfortably. "Why you no like?"

"Sorry..." Mickey rubbed her neck where Vaas kissed her at. "I'm _very _welsh. I might disappoint you, sweethearts."

"What? Are you telling me..." Vaas cupped Mickey's face in his hands and brought her close to his face. He pressed their foreheads together. "You've never done anything sensual in your life?"

"Nope." Mickey admitted, bravely. "Never."

"You a liar!" Vaas barked out, profound. "You're twenty-three years of age, and had never done anything sexy in your life!"

"NO." Mickey repeated herself firmly. "I'm a strong, independent, proud British gal, who don't need no man!" She stood herself up from Vaas' lap, stumbling up to her feet to try standing straight like an honorable soldier. "Forces cannot be heard from this gal. But, I'll admit one thing I've done funny..."

Vaas dramatically gasps in surprise, like a housewife that's about to hear a juicy gossip. "What is it, babycakes? You can tell daddy anything!"

Mickey brought her voice down to a whisper. "Back in England, when I went out clubbing with my girls, I knew how to twerk."

Vaas' expression fell face to the sound of that. His lips formed an "O".

But, he obviously couldn't believe it for long. "Nah. You fucking lie, you silly, silly drunk. You should prove it, then, if you speak the truth!"

Mickey just stuck her tongue at Vaas as a "no". "I hadn't booty danced in years. I probably can't even remember how to do it." Mickey stumbled over to the wooden table in the shack, trying to keep herself standing. "Let's see..." She spoke to herself. "You first," She turned to face Vaas. "Bend over forward slightly," She bent over forward just very slightly, so that she would plummet on her face. "You put your hands on your knees. Bring your booty out, with an arch of your back, and then, you just dance!" With that, Mickey started to pop her behind. "Twerking is like regular booty popping, so it's pretty fucking stupid to give it a name, anyhow." Mickey explained, still shaking it.

Vaas was staring right at her in awe. Never had he once thought his bubbly, lovely and psychotic little girl could do something so sensual. Not to mention, had never been once touched by a man in her young, adult life. Then again, if Mickey dedicated that to herself, then it should have been obvious from start.

"You," Vaas pointed at Mickey, once she stopped dancing. "You are a mermaid."

"Noooo..." Mickey tried disagreeing, knowing where Vaas was getting at.

"I'm serious!" Vaas shouted, trying to speak. "You lure men in like a siren, get their attention from their mates, and then, you just push them away once they get close!" Vaas squinted at Mickey, with a serious look on his face. "I bet you could lure in as many men you wanted, and kill them all."

"Well, I don't." Mickey waved him off. "I'm just a typical girl now. Deal with it."

"Let's get you refreshed then." Vaas gestured his index finger to Mickey. "C'mere."

"No." Mickey barked out, seeing Vaas' face fall. "Don't tell me what to do! I'll move my legs if I want!" With that, Mickey started moving towards Vaas, but just plummeted down on her stomach on his cot. "I'm fucking tired of standing."

"Then just lay down." Vaas loomed over Mickey's back, with his body hovering over her's. "I promise I'll be good to you."

Mickey felt Vaas' rough hand brush some strands of red hair from the back of her neck, and start kissing her skin there. He slowly brought his body down to her's, massaging his large palms over her sides, to try and relax her.

Mickey was still awake, but not minding the closeness Vaas was giving to her. It just brought her back to a time when she cried in bed, one year ago, and Vaas went out of his character to comfort her the entire night, holding her close, and saying assuring comments to calm her down. Being around this man for two years, it wasn't scary to have him this close. He felt like a blanket over her back, warming her up with his alcohol-fueled body, and wet lips-kisses on her neck.

"Move." Mickey said, trying to turn over on her back. Once she did, Vaas laid his body back down on her. "You're heavy."

"Yes, I am." Vaas says against her neck. "Deal with it."

"Can I kiss you?" Mickey bravely asks, feeling her face rush to a red color when Vaas chuckled against her.

He lifted his upper body up to look down at her. "When does the Great Mickey ask permission?"

The two pirates kissed, sharing their first ever real kiss together. Mickey felt something completely different from kissing another man. She had kissed before, but, with Vaas, something lit up on fire in her heart, that started to heat up her entire body. Mickey opened her eye to look at Vaas, and saw that his eyes were already open.

"Holy fucking shit!" Mickey squealed in fright. "Don't do that! That's scary!"

Vaas didn't say anything. His eyes just studied her good eye, seeing that it was churning emotions full of confusion, excitement, and worry. He hadn't seen that in a long time, in anyone's eyes. His eyes were darkened with something Mickey couldn't seriously read, because she's never seen it before on him. She saw hints of lust swirling deep in his pale, light green eyes, but, she also saw something unrecognizable to tell. Something that also lit up his fire. Something new.

"I love you." Vaas finally spoke up. Mickey raised her eyebrow at him.

"Like a love song?" Mickey asks, seeing Vaas make a wide grin on his face, ready to chuckle.

"Yeah. Or, more than that." Vaas shrugged one shoulder. "I'll make love to you _all_ night, until you get sick of me."

"Not now!" Mickey stopped Vaas from getting closer to her face again.

"What? What's wrong?" Vaas stopped, blinking in confusion.

"_He's _watching." Mickey eyed something behind Vaas.

Vaas looked over his shoulder. It was a movie poster of a true story film called Valkyrie, with the poster showing the star of the film, Tom Cruise.

Vaas sat up on his knees to look at the poster. "Stop jumping on my couches, Tom Cruise!" And he drove in a punch into the poster. He punched the poster so hard, his fist went straight through the shack's wooden wall, to the outside. When he pulled back his hand, Tom Cruise's face was gone.

Vaas made a wide smile of approval. "Now, where were we?"

**When it just becomes too much to take in the guilt and pain, the liquor often helps ease the pain. We cry, we laugh, we sing, and we talk out hidden thoughts. But, then we just wake up with an even greater pain in the morning afterwards. Sometimes, right next to the very person that cried along with you.**

**More to come, in the next chapter!**


	11. Creating The Perfect Girl

The sound of Vaas' loud snoring woke up Mickey the next morning. She opened up her sore eyes to the sunlight beaming in front the old bullet holes in the ceiling, and felt her body aching everywhere. She felt like trying to get up, but, her head was suddenly beating with a nagging headache.

Mickey looked over to her side, and saw Vaas there. At first, she was not surprised to see him beside her, because she had a couple of nights where she had to usually freeload off of his cot because of the constant pests of insects tormenting her in her own shack. But, then she noticed that his usual red muscle shirt was missing from his torso, and his jeans zipper were down, and unbuttoned. Her eyes widened and she moved her hands down to her own stomach and legs, checking if her clothes were still on.

They were not.

"Aaaaahhhhhh!" Mickey screamed so loud, the birds on the rooftop flew off in a flock.

She screamed so loud, that Vaas jumped sky-high out of the cot and brought out his pistol from his hip holster he still had strapped on. "Where's the fucking fire! Get to the chopper!" He randomly screamed out, pointing his gun across the room at a wall.

He quickly glanced down at Mickey at his side, and saw that she was hiding her naked body underneath of a worn-out blanket.

"What the fuck happened!" Vaas yelled out, unable to comprehend anything that woke him up.

"We had sex." Mickey blared out of her mouth, loud enough for Vaas to hear her.

Vaas froze. He almost dropped his gun out of his hands. "Oh..."

[You Devil, You]

Vaas was outside of his shack, puking out all the alcohol that rotted his stomach acid. He still couldn't find his muscle shirt he wore the night before, but he still had on his now buttoned jeans on, and boots. He was barfing out all his forgotten memories of the night before, unable to recognize what just happened.

"I'm leaving." Mickey immediately marches out of the shack, with her clothes back on. She tried power-walking as fast as she could from the shack, but was having a difficult time trying to make her tank top fit around her small torso. "What the fuck is wrong with my shirt?!" Mickey finally screamed, irritated by the tank top blowing in the wind like a ship's flag.

Vaas looked over at Mickey, and realized, "You're wearing _my _muscle shirt!"

Mickey made a shocked look on her face. She was about to turn back and hand it over, but, when Vaas and her made immediate eye-contact, she gave up. "Fuck it then!" Mickey continued down the hill, hugging her arms around her stomach and chest, to keep the wind from knocking the fabric around.

"Where are you going?!" Vaas shouted at Mickey, before puking out more stomach acid.

"I'm... I'm going to the beach! I don't know!" Mickey just walked away.

[Walking Sickness]

_I can't just talk to him like nothing happened. _Mickey rolled her eye to herself, huffing angrily. _How could something that stupid happen? Was I seriously that drunk off so much brandy, in one sitting? _She felt like hitting her head against a palm tree trunk, or just jump off of a cliff. _Damn. Damn! Such a fucking nimrod, I am!_

Mickey's mind was set on going to the beach, as she had said before. Anywhere far, far away from the problems.

She was still in a state if disbelief, when she had realized what just happened. Two years down the drain, in her mind. She wanted to just stay somewhere lonesome and quiet for the rest of the day, for as long as she wanted. As much as she did want to go back and talk to Vaas about it, she couldn't face him at the exact moment of time. It just made her feel much more miserable to think that her entire promise on staying virgin were all for drinks and none.

"Aaahhhh!" Mickey just screamed to herself, as much as she wanted. "Fucking ridiculous! Fucking alcohol! Fucking-" She was about to swear out Vaas' name, but, she couldn't bring herself to do it. "Fuck everything." She quietly brought her voice down, lowering her head. "Ugh. Why must I show a vice in the morning..." Mickey rubbed her face tiredly, starting to feel the effects of an aftermath kicking into her system. Hangovers were the worst.

She sat herself down on the sand and hugged herself, with her head down on her knees that she embraced with her arms. She smelled something familiar on the foreign muscle shirt she was wearing on herself. Even if it were Vaas', the texture was completely unrecognizable to her skin, making her itch her shoulders repeatedly. How could Vaas even wear the shirt with such ease, and show no sign of irritation?

The scent of the shirt was something familiar, though. Something Vaas would only smell like.

_I only smell blood, alcohol, vomit and something exotically evil. _Mickey gave another good whiff to the shirt. _And shame._

Mickey sighed heavily and pulled herself up to her feet. "I shouldn't just sit here." She told herself.

"You're right." Someone responded behind her back.

When Mickey spun around to face the unknown, she was met by a punch to the face, and darkness.

_Why doesn't anyone like me enough?_

[It'll Cost A Few Pounds]

"The deal was that we'd kidnap the girl. Not sacrifice some flesh off of her!"

"Relax. It's not like she'll need them."

Mickey's left eye was blindfolded, while her empty right eye-socket was exposed, from hiding behind an eyepatch. Her arms were tied down to the arms of a wooden chair, and her legs were also tied down to the chair legs. She didn't breathe hard in panic. She remained calm, and listened for whoever was speaking.

Mickey could hear a man's voice. It sounded completely foreign and rough on accent. "Get her to talk, and then come back to me. Make sure to have information." The sounds of heavy footsteps and wooden floors creaking faded off into a distance after that order.

Mickey felt the warmth of someone closing into her side. "Start talking."

"About what? My day?" Mickey growled, dropping her head. "What do you want with the likes of me?"

The top of her head was grabbed by a strong hand, gripping her hair. Her head was lifted back up, but Mickey still couldn't see them. "Don't play stupid. You know something about Vaas' plans, don't you?" This man's voice was American, Mickey could tell. He spoke with such venom in each word, it almost made Mickey want to grit her teeth. "You're his favorite little girl he just _loves _to tag along in every expedition, don't he?" He slammed Mickey's back against the chair.

"What? Just because I'm a favorite, doesn't mean you have to take out your rejection on me. Boar!" Mickey spit blindly at him, probably hitting him, because he made an irritated shout and rubbed his face.

Mickey was delivered another punch into the face, that almost knocked her out cold. She kept her composure, though, and remained awake. She could feel a warm liquid forming inside of her mouth from biting her lip too hard.

"Give her a break, man! She's a lady!" Another man stopped the American one. He sounded Southern. "Come on, hon. You can escape unharmed if you just cough up something about Vaas' plans. Hell, maybe leave alive after this!" It sounded as if he were playing a dirty trick on Mickey. He was probably playing the good guy, bad guy motto with her, like they did on those police dramas Mickey always watched with Vaas. "I promise, I won't let this guy hurt you."

"As for you, then!" Mickey snapped at the other man, blindly spitting a mouthful of her blood at his direction. "Go burn over the Christ's Cross in the Ninth Division of Hell, you fucking bastard!"

"What the fuck did you say?!" The Southern man screamed. "Bring that knife to me, now!"

The sharp feeling of a dagger's point pressed hard against Mickey's neck. She was gritting her teeth now, also gripping the arms of the chairs.

"Start talking, you fucking whore." His voice hissed in fury. "I'll gut you like a fish, if you don't talk. I promise."

Mickey shook her head bravely. "You might as well." _Plans._ She wanted to scoff.

With that thought, Mickey felt the dagger taken away from her neck, and plummeted straight into her right hand. She yelped out, but she dared not to scream, and give the pleasure of showing pain to her tormentors. The blade twisted, snapping her hand's skeleton, and she felt a tear run down from her blindfolded eye.

"We should just kill her. Tell Dennis that she was useless?"

"I think I can go along with that idea, partner."

The blade was taken out of her broken hand, by slicing straight out of the flesh and tissue of her bleeding hand. Mickey bit back more screams, lowering her head, her body shaking in pain and agony. She then felt the blade move over to her other hand, to the knuckles.

"This little piggy went to the market." Her pinky finger was sliced off. Mickey held her breath. "This little piggy stayed home." Her ring finger was sliced off.

Mickey's head dropped down. The blindfold fell off.

"Dude, is she already dead?" The American asked the Southern man. "Did we scare her to death?"

"I don't know, partner. We should see..." The Southern man grabbed the top of Mickey's head and lifted her face up to him. Her eye was closed, and a mouthful of blood was drooling out of her mouth. "Yep. She looks fucking dead." The man dropped Mickey's head. "We should throw her out before Dennis gets mad at us."

While the Southern man was cutting off the ropes tied around Mickey's immobile legs, the American man brought out another knife and went over to Mickey's side. He cut off the rope holding her hand down...

Immediately, Mickey's hand snapped out at the knife and pried it out of his hand with ease. Before the man could react, the blade met with his forehead, throwing him backwards onto the floor. He died instantly.

Mickey snapped open her eye and used her now-free legs to stand up.

The other man charged at Mickey with the knife he had, but Mickey immediately blocked him with the wooden chair that was still tied to her other wrist. She rammed the chair against his chest and caused them both to plummet the floor, with the chair in between them.

The man tried prying the knife out of the wood of the chair, while Mickey frantically searched for another weapon to use. She saw something shining on the floor, and recognized it as a sling-blade. She picked it up with her three fingers, feeling the blade cut into her skin, and drove it down into the Southern man's scalp like a hammer. The sharpened sling-blade was so strong to the blow, it cracked open the man's temple, immediately killing him off. Mickey gave another blow to the dead man's broken skull for good measures, so that he wouldn't get up.

"Fuck you, asshole." Mickey panted hard, while slicing the rope around her wrist with the sling-blade. Once she was finally free, she didn't risk the idea of going out that door she heard this Dennis person go through. So, she turned around to the back of the room and snuck out the large window, leaving a trail of her blood in the sill.

_I don't want to know anything about your plans yet, Vaas. Just let me rest._

[The Walk Of Regret]

Mickey didn't know what village she was in, but she walked for hours, back towards the other side of the island, where she knew it was home. She had to take off the baggy shirt she wore and wrap it around her bleeding, sliced hand. She was luckily wearing her bra that day. Her second hand was bleeding from the finger stumps that were once her pinky and ring fingers. She just wanted to go home to mend to her bleeding hands, and sleep.

She could see from a distance in the sun that it was about noon. It was only four hours of her disappearance.

"The hours seem astronomical." Mickey mumbled to herself, wanting to laugh. "Oh, get a grip, girl. You're not dead, so that's one happy thought..."

Mickey walked for another hour, down a trail that was suddenly becoming familiar. She sat down on a boulder to give herself a rest, tiredly breathing hard from the blood loss and short energy she was losing. Her eye became drowsy, as she began to fall in-and-out of consciousness.

"You think she's mad at you still, boss?"

"Mm, no. I think we'll see each other again."

The rumbling feeling of heavy tires and an armed vehicle approached the trail Mickey was on. She could hear the sound of a familiar voice speaking calmly to another pirate.

"She's probably back at her shack and sleeping. She likes napping a lot."

"Well, wait! Isn't that her, boss?"

The armed vehicle was finally appearing from behind the trails of the brush and trees, coming up to Mickey's direction. On the vehicle, Vaas was driving, with Ronnie in the passenger side. Vaas could see Mickey sitting slump on the boulder, hugging her arms around her stomach, holding his shirt around her hands, and her head dropped down.

"Mickey?!" Vaas stopped the vehicle and jumped out immediately, speeding over to her side. "Mickey!"

Mickey didn't respond. She was unconscious from blood loss. But, Vaas could see that blood was collecting fast in the shirt that balled up her hands.

"Drive, Ronnie!" Vaas screamed at Ronnie. While Ronnie jumped into the driver's side, Vaas picked up Mickey, bridal style, and carried her back to the vehicle. "Fuck, she's losing too much blood in one fucking sitting!"

[The Image Of A Woman]

"No point to saving her hand. It's completely useless. Her hand was severely damaged, and it needed to be amputated. Her finger stumps on her second hand were able to be sewn shut, though, and it stopped the bleeding. She will just have to live with only one hand now, and three fingers."

"Sucks that she'll just have one hand now. It'll be pretty boring without her cool gun shooting."

"Don't fucking say that. I _know_ Mickey better. She ain't going to let an amputated hand get in her fucking way, got it?"

While Mickey could plainly hear the conversation going on outside of her shack, she ignored it by trying to get on her short jacket, that had long sleeves. She slowly put on her jacket, trying not to drop it. She used her handless stump to hold it for support as she slid her other arm through the first sleeve.

"Mickey." Mickey could hear a familiar man call her name from outside softly. "You okay?"

"Mhm." Mickey hummed. "Just in a moment." She strapped on her eye-patch, adjusting it over her empty eye-socket neatly.

Once everything was on, Mickey stepped out of her shack.

She was met by the crazy doctor, Ronnie, and Vaas. All stared up at her with unreadable expressions. Mickey didn't know what to say.

"Your arm should be good by now." The Doctor approached Mickey's right side, where her handless arm was. "Healed, I see. Keeping it covered from the elements?"

"You could say so, doctor." Mickey nodded to the Doctor. "I am merely trying out a fashion sense, I suppose."

"And your other hand." The Doctor took Mickey's left hand. "It looks as if the finger stumps have also healed now. At least you've still got the three remaining fingers to still pull a trigger. But, do not force your hand to cock back a pistol. You may need to use hard surfaces to do that, like a desk or wall."

Mickey nodded to everything he said. The Doctor gave her an assuring pat on the back, before setting off.

"Yo, Mickey." Ronnie gave her the thumbs-up. "Looking pretty vice there, girly."

"I'll take that as a compliment." Mickey smiled at Ronnie, watching the youngster also walk off.

She then glanced at Vaas. She also gave him a smile.

"Mickey." Vaas walked up to Mickey and embraced her tightly. "I'm fucking sorry." He engulfed her in his arms, bury his face in the crook of her neck and shoulder. "I'm _so_ fucking _sorry_." Mickey looked at Vaas, unsure of what to say at the moment. "I shouldn't have left you alone. I shouldn't have let you go off by yourself."

Mickey shook her head, wrapping her good arm around Vaas' back. "You are not to blame for mistakes, Vaas. I shouldn't have been so stubborn about earlier."

"No. I mean it." Vaas stopped her. "Sorries aren't even good enough. I just didn't want... I mean, I don't... _fuck_!" Vaas screamed at himself. "I'm a fucking _loser_!"

"No. Don't say that, moron." Mickey bopped Vaas' forehead with the heel of her good hand. "If my boyfriend calls himself a loser one more time, there will be more homework for him to do tomorrow." She pointed her finger at Vaas, sounding like she was threatening him in the most non-lethal way.

Vaas' eyes almost grew wide. He felt a grin stretch across his face when he saw Mickey ready to giggle up at him with her usual, bubbly self. He was frightened to death that the experience just turned her down into a different person, that he wouldn't recognize. But, she hasn't changed one bit.

"What's the homework, mi chica?"

"Explaining everything to me in alphabetical order, you secretive bastard. After that, you will let me bunk with you tonight, because I don't want to sleep alone."

**It becomes scary to know that you may never come back alive. But, if you do, never be ashamed of what you lost. You still have the pride and honorable fellows right at your back, holding you up. Hold your head high, and make everyone see that you feel no regret.**

**More to come, in the next chapter!**


	12. Amputated Beginning

[Fatherly Instincts]

_"I didn't mean it... I didn't mean it!" Mickey sobbed hard, into her bloodied hands, over the pregnant woman. "She made me... I mean, I didn't think...!" She couldn't make out an explanation for what just happened._

_"It's okay." Hoyt assured Mickey, kneeling at her side. "She was just out of control. You needed to take control of the situation, before it went out of hand."_

_Mickey shook her head fast. "But, it _did _go out of hand! I killed a pregnant woman!" She screamed out to the top of her lungs. "I just wanted to leave onto this island and die alone! I didn't want to kill another life again!" She lifted her blood-stained hands up to looked down at them. "Are these the hands of a serial killer? Or, am I just a dysfunctional woman, on a rampage?"_

_Hoyt took Mickey's hands into his, and looked down at her bloodied palms, studying them for a moment. He looked back up at her bright, watery brown eyes and smiled. "These are the hands of an artist, dear." He explained in such a calm tone. "You are an artist on the run, who is afraid of your own talents." Hoyt balled Mickey's hands up into his own, patting them as comfort. "You mustn't be scared. Others on this island would understand your ideals just as much as I would, girl."_

_Mickey blinked, with her eyebrows furrowed upwards in worry. A fresh tear ran down the streamline on her cheek. "... Really?"_

_"Absolutely!" Hoyt shook Mickey's hands in assurance. "You are one of the string theories that balances this world with your own hands. Do not let others take back that talent, just because they wouldn't understand. Let it excel!"_

_That day forward, Mickey had heeded Hoyt's words as a push to her back, and moved her two feet onto the island grounds to start a life of being a pirate girl. Obviously different from the others, because she was exceeding in death, but, she wanted nothing more, than to lead her own army of those that would also comprehend her ideals. Others on the island felt her exact words comb across the space of distances, and had begun to try following her own orders._

_"Forget that blubbering buffoon. Just follow me!" Mickey ordered out to the pirate crew that recently took orders from the pirate lord, Arch. "Merely running out there in plain view and making bullets rain like a storm is just pure idiocy! I won't have a crew born-and-raised on just shooting. We must be tactical!"_

_Their task of the day was to take back control of a rundown control house that had all the technology of old war communications and trackers to upcoming helicopters and ships that neared Rook Island's circle. This control house was necessary for Hoyt to use, so that the pirates and he could easily track down upcoming bait that were being lured to the island destination. This control house was once used in war, to track down fighter aircrafts and battleships on ocean surfaces._

_The Rakyat had seemed to have taken control of the house for unknown purposes, but, it didn't matter for what. They had to be exiled._

_Following behind this simple, and petite, pirate girl sounded odd, but to hear her shouting voice screaming righteousness to order the crew much better, they didn't care who Arch was at the moment. Or where he was. They wanted to follow her back on this task._

_The crew snuck behind the building grounds, behind a thick brush of bushes and wild trees that covered them. Silently stepping over the rubble of bricks and rooftop pieces the control house scrapped off from years at war, the crew quietly stopped for a moment to hear Mickey's ploy._

_"You and you," Mickey pointed at two thin pirates. "You two will take out those two guards on the North of this building with the AKs. Lucipher and I shall take out the other guards on the opposing side. The rest of you," She gestured her hand out to the rest of the pirates. "Take your positions behind this brush of cover. When I give the signal, we will pour some Hell Frozen Rain on these poor sods."_

_As planned by Mickey, the two pirates on the North silently took the two Rakyat guards by surprise, covering their mouths and pulling them into the brush without being spotted, and killed them on the mark in quiet. Lucipher and Mickey also performed the same act on the guards on the opposing side, silently killing them with blades. They hid their bodies further behind the trees so that the other guards wouldn't find them._

_Mickey and the other pirates took their positions as planned, and waited for Mickey's signal. She waited until the rest of the outside Rakyat guards to stroll up casually in front of the control house, as if nothing was happening. When there were enough guards at the front, Mickey threw her arm up into the air, signaling the attack._

_The crew jumped out of the brush and started raining Hell on the unsuspected Rakyat guards. Before the guards could react with their own guns, the pirates were pouring out AK bullets and sharp shooters on the surprised group. Quick as dust being wiped off a surface, the guards were exiled._

_Mickey hollered out at the crew to then pile up at the iron double doors of the control house and start taking their positions. Once they did, one of the burly pirate men drop-kicked the locked double doors with force, and the pirates ran right in to the sound of Mickey shouting, "Go, go go!"_

_Inside, more guards were being dropped like flies to the element of surprise by the pirates. Three rooms were being cleaned out, while Mickey took her position in taking out the main room's controller. She pulled out her pistol from her holster and, in point-blank range, shot the leading guard between the eyes, dropping him dead before he could react._

_Once he was down, Mickey could hear the loud chatter of her crew checking for survivors, without bullets ringing out now._

_"Is everything unharmed?" Mickey asked her crew, wanting to know if the computers and scanners were in fine condition. The main room was fine._

_"Everything's good here!" One of the pirates gave the clear in one room._

_"Nothing's harmed in here!" Another pirate gave the thumbs-up to Mickey._

_Mickey grinned to herself for the clearance. "Where's Arch when you need him now, hm?" She hollered to her crew in all her persistent, cocky attitude. She heard the chuckling and laughter of mockery from the pirates when they heard their pirate lord's name. "Have no fear, my darlings. I am always glad to take replacement of the buffoons."_

_After the task was successfully executed, Mickey reported back to Hoyt that the control house was taken back._

_"I'm proud of you, my girl." Hoyt smiled up at Mickey, sitting back in his large, leather chair, with his feet kicked up on his desk. "I should of given you the position of pirate lord ions ago. Such a nimrod, I am." Hoyt knocked his knuckles against his head, rolling his eyes. "It would have gone worse, if Arch was heeded. I applaud you, girl." Hoyt bows his head to Mickey. She bowed her head back to him. "Next time I see that miserable sod, I'm going to have a long, long, _long _talk with him."_

_Mickey smiled at Hoyt, still standing on the other side of his desk. "No need for thanks. I was just wanting to show off my own leadership skills." Mickey admitted._

_"Oh? Then, why don't you impress us some more, and be the pirate lord I needed a long time ago." Hoyt suggested to Mickey, seeing her eyes light up. "Arch was already going to be killed for last expedition's failure. I should have killed him that time. My mistake." Hoyt took a drag from his cigar. "Your brother was a soldier, correct?" Hoyt asked Mickey. She nodded her head. "You must take leadership from that fellow, then. I commend him for raising a good sister."_

_Mickey chuckled to that, shifting her eyes downwards to the floor. "I simply take good measures, like my brother."_

_"A measure? More like a constant success." Hoyt laughed out, with cigar smoke blowing out of his laughter. "Oh, I must be rambling on for nothing. You better get going, you minx. I have to find out where that fucker, Arch, is, before he decides to wimp out of this one again."_

_Mickey nodded her head, before turning around and leaving the large office._

_While walking out, she could lastly hear Hoyt saying something as a compliment towards her. "You know? If I were your father, I would be praising the Gods for gifting me such blood in my veins, that had granted me such a daughter."_

_It was odd to look up to Hoyt as a father figure. He was nothing related to Mickey, but, sometimes it felt like he was a long-lost father she had never known in her lifetime. He'd even treat her like she were his own sometimes, and she would treat him like he were her actual father in real life. As much as family seriously didn't matter to Hoyt, the importance of having his pirate lord near was all that really mattered, as much as he didn't want to admit the idea of looking at Mickey as a bloodline._

[Point Of Fashion]

Since that day of her amputation, Mickey had tried her best to look decent in front of her on-looking pirate crew that saw her as their proud, pirate Goddess. She had begun her own fashion sense with her handless arm, and started out with new outfits that would fit her new look. Sure, she was acting out of her tomboy character of dressing up, but, she couldn't help it. One of her weaknesses were looking awful in front of a crowd.

Just dressing slowly, because of her issue of dressing formally with just one hand, Mickey had threw on a red tank top that was bright red. She put on brown, knee-high trousers that hugged her thighs comfortably. She then put on a black, leather, bolero jacket that had sleeves long enough to cover up her amputated hand, and only reveal her other hand, that just had three fingers. She spent the rest of her seconds to put her gear back on, with were boots and her holster belt she wore for two years around her waist.

Mickey strapped on the eye-patch around her head neatly, and adjusted the patch over her closed, eye-socket. She look at her face one last time in the broken mirror of her shack, before she turned to leave the dark place.

When she stepped outside, Mickey was met by the sunbeams shining straight onto her face.

"I am going to kill you, sun!" Mickey pointed up at the sky. "I'll kill you- aaahhhh! My eye!" Mickey stared too long at the sun with her good eye.

"Hey, Mickey!" A squeaky voice from a distance called at Mickey. It was the young man, Ronnie. "Mickey, how are you?"

"I'm fine, my favorite pupil." Mickey pats the top of Ronnie's head.

[Parts Of A Woman]

"How's your fucking arm?"

"Okay. It doesn't hurt anymore where the stitches were made."

Since the stitching into her skin, the wounds began to heal up and the stitches began to dissolve into nothingness. Her skin sealed up the opened stumps of where her flesh and bones could be exposed, but, this meant that they would just close up for good. She wouldn't be able to replace them.

"It's not so bad." Mickey assured Vaas. "It's just something... different." Mickey softly said the last word. Her face fell to an unsure expression.

Vaas noticed this. He was about to ask what was wrong, when he noticed that Mickey just folded her arms oddly. She hid her handless arm underneath of her other arm.

"Yo, what's with the dissent?" Vaas asks Mickey, tilting his head to the side to look at Mickey's disapproving face.

"Nothing." Mickey just smiled up at Vaas. "It's nothing."

"It's something." Vaas corrected her. He brought her closer to his chest. "What's wrong, guapa?"

"... Hands." Mickey finally admitted. "I kept being a little scared that you'd look at my hands and face, and think of me as overall-disgusting." Mickey made a long frown on her face, just thinking of the reaction she had imaged Vaas would have given her earlier if he saw her hands freely. "I'd hate to see your face look at me in such a way. My appearance now must drive you away..."

"Are you fucking kidding?" Vaas wanted to scoff. "You look like that Claus von Stauffenberg guy from Valkyrie now!" Vaas sounded completely fine with how Mickey looked. He stepped back from Mickey and looked at her overall language. "Damn. You'd make a _fine _Colonel, too."

"No way... I love that movie." Mickey thought back to the film for a brief moment. "I'm so fly now!" But then, a funny thought entered her mind as well. She pointed straight at Vaas and chanted, "Nerd, nerd, nerd!" Indicating on how the Valkyrie film was all based on historical thriller on World War II, and the fight against Adolf Hitler. She couldn't help herself but call Vaas a history geek.

Vaas shrugged. "I like my history stories to be thrillers. Bite me." He retorts. "Bite me _hard_."

"No way!" Mickey backed off from Vaas, noticing how he took a giant step forward to her. "You might taste like blood, alcohol, vomit and spices."

"And shame." Vaas proudly smirked at Mickey, raising one eyebrow at her. "Pure _shame_, guapa."

"Ridiculous drivel from a psychotic sod." Mickey rolled her eye.

"Oh, really? You disagree repetitively on the ideals of decretory sensations, that actually escalates greater concept, you hypocrite." Vaas retorted right back to Mickey, seeing her make an angered look. He couldn't help but give a smug look to the pirate girl. "Got something for me, mi chica?"

"Dissenter!" Mickey points straight at Vaas, furiously. "You've dissent on so much, you can't even keep come up with a complicated method of _reasoning_ or _logical explanations_ of something so simple to organize in the state of mind! You allow a Fourth Wall to crumble you down and enter _your_ decretory mind!" Mickey throws her arms into the air. "You cannot even tell that the weight of the world is astronomical!"

Mickey and Vaas stared at each other for a long moment, giving each other false glares. Mickey was the first to start giggling when she saw Vaas smirking.

"I can't stay angry at you, guapa. I like your face too much."

"We should punch each other in the face at the same time, then."

Vaas thought for a brief moment on that offer. "I couldn't break that beautiful face of yours, chi-"

_Punch._

Before Vaas could finish that thought, he was met with a three-finger punch to the face, by the innocently psychotic pirate girl he was just about ready to maul. The punch was so hard, and unexpected, that it made Vaas tumble backwards on his feet. He managed to keep himself up, and saw that Mickey was giving the most sinister grin on her face, holding her fist up to show him the specks of blood on her knuckles.

"Okay, you little psycho." Vaas chuckled wickedly, developing a vice. "You want to play rough?" He balled his hand into a fist.

_Slam!_

Both of them punched each other at the same time.

"Aaahhh!" They both yelped out, backing off from each other.

Mickey had a forming bruise darkening on her cheek. Vaas had a lovely bruise forming right at his cheekbone.

Both of them look at each other to study each other's bruised faces, and couldn't help but start chuckling at each other.

"Hahahaha!" Mickey couldn't help but bellow out. "Oh my God! That looks awful, love!"

"Hahahaha!" Vaas also bellowed out in a jovial mood now. "What the fuck?! Your bruise is worst!" He barked out through his uncontrollable laughter.

This punching was mostly normal between the two. Usually, it meant great things between each other. Either their such good friends, that they just want to punch the blinding lights out of each other - or, they just love each other that much, they want to kill each other. Completely great things out of punching each other.

[Instincts]

"Alright, fuckers." Vaas wickedly cackled downward to a giant cage of prisoned rejects. "We're going to have a little fun today! Not _that kind_ of fun, either!" He quickly added in the last part. "We're going to entertain our favorite muchacha today! With you all being the targets, and me, Ronnie and Hoyt watching as entertainment!" With that being said, Vaas immediately released the cage out into a four-walled field that was opened for them to run on, but be wary of Mickey's presence.

One reject ran out of the cage in fright, unknowingly starting the game.

Mickey cocked the pistol back, by pushing it against a wooden beam she hid behind. Once it clicked, Mickey raised the gun out of cover and started shooting straight at the running escapee that was trying to outrun her shots.

The bullets flew straight at the woman's head, landing perfect kills to the escapee. She landed down onto the ground with a loud thud.

"Another one, for the run!" Vaas released more escapees out into Mickey's field.

Proving she was not useless with just one shooting hand, Mickey had wanted rejects to come running out of their cages like a pack of hyperactive boars and run straight at her. She wanted to use her only good hand with single-handed shooting. She was accurately hitting them all perfectly in the heads or chest, dropping them one-by-one.

"Ronnie, my boy!" Mickey shouted towards Ronnie up in the watchtower. "Throw mummy that shotgun, please!"

"What! Really?!" Ronnie's eyes glimmered in awe. "Yes, ma'am!" He went down to the giant bag full of different guns and found a pump-action shotgun, loaded. "Here you go, ma'am!" Ronnie chucked down the shotgun to Mickey from the watchtower height.

Mickey grappled it in her only hand with ease, and holstered it right under her armpit to support it upwards. She started pulling the trigger on two young teens, watching gun pellets rip through their chests and faces with brutality.

"Leroy!" Mickey roared up, raising the shotgun into the air. "Reloading." Mickey knelt down and placed the wooden end of the shotgun underneath of her armpit again. She pushed opened the barrels of the gun, watching two red shells pop out by themselves. She dug her hand into her pocket and brought out two shotgun bullets, reloading them into the barrels. She pulled back the barrels and jumped back up to her feet, using her good hand to cock back the forearm of the shotgun in the air. "Bring me more out."

"I guess she's not so useless." Hoyt said to Vaas, as the two sat in the same watchtower with Ronnie. "I guess some women are full of surprises."

"Strong women, at that. I knew Mickey would think up of something to push herself." Vaas mumbled, but loud enough for Hoyt to hear, through the gunshots ringing out at screams. "I knew Mickey would just hate to feel useless, if we just saw her as a one-handed pirate girl."

"_Don't _think I didn't know that, my psychotic fellow." Hoyt shrugs heavily, sighing. "Two years of her life on this island, and I treat her just like my daughter I've never had before. I would have likely gone out to kill your Rakyat family, if Mickey was discovered to be murdered by those fucking mistakes." He looks down upon the watchtower, watching Mickey scattering about the field to hunt down paranoid escapees on her own. "A daughter. That's a shame that I see her as one."

"Yeah..." Vaas smiles to himself. "Two years of crime and joyous shame."

"That's beautiful." Hoyt sarcastically applauded Vaas. "Wait until I see your kids. They'll be half-hyper and half-psychopathic kiddies on a rampage. What chemistry!"

"Kids?!" Ronnie was ready to fall over. "Whoa! Their kid would be a completely ravenous pirate minion! He or she would be the greatest killer in the world!"

"Shut up! _You're_ her_ kid_ as it is." Vaas pointed straight at Ronnie, with a growl. "_You_ can call her mommy, but _I_ can't. What kind of fucked up shit is that?"

"More rejects!" Mickey screamed up at the watchtower.

Vaas looked down from the watchtower at Mickey. "I'll let them out, if you call me daddy."

Mickey made a disgusted look on her face. "Fuck you. Give me rejects!"

"What's that? Did I hear you say daddy?" Vaas wickedly grinned down at Mickey, raising one eyebrow.

"Oh, look. I see one reject right now." Mickey pointed the gun barrel at Vaas' direction. "Nevermind." She lowers the gun. "Ronnie, dear!" Mickey's voice pitched back to a perfect, motherly-modeled tone. "Be a good boy and bring mummy more meat to fry!"

"Don't listen to her! She's a witch!" Vaas tried stopping the youngster from listening to Mickey. "She calls me daddy, she gets rejects!"

Suddenly, Hoyt grabs Vaas' by the back of his shoulders and starts shaking him violently, while screaming his brilliant idea. "Vaas. _Vaas_! Make me a grandchild with my Mickey, that'll be an amalgamation of terror!"

**Just when you realize you are on a verge of failure, there is someone pushing you right at your back, telling you to keep moving forward.**

**More to come, in the next chapter!**


	13. We Have Lift Off

"Listen up, class!" The sound of Vaas' fist slammed down onto the wooden table surface loudly, calling order. "Today's session is to shut your dirty pie-holes!" Vaas screamed out at the room of pirates chattering. "I don't want to feel like I'm screaming in some crowded auditorium, so just fucking listen to my beautiful voice."

The room was full of twelve of the best pirates on the island. Only twelve, that were all pirate lords, that Vaas could honestly put all of his heart and trust into. Even some that Mickey hand-picked, because she had worked alongside with some of them in her past. She was also there at the meeting, standing in the back of the room with Ronnie, Lucipher, and another trusted Hispanic pirate lord nicknamed "Dynamite" that Mickey knew from a bombing expedition.

Many of the pirate lords were of different, exotic races. About three of the lords were Icelandic folks, two were Russian, and four were Polish fellows. There was a small amount of Hispanic and British, but, it didn't seriously matter.

All of them were men, gritty and young. Or, burly and experienced with years. Mickey was the _only female_ pirate lord in the meeting.

Some pirate lords were sitting on worn-out couches, while the others remained standing. There was a giant map plastered on the West side of the room wall, that showed an entire map of Rook Island, and the location of the Rakyat's lair.

"Are we going to kill those Rakyat cocksuckers, or what?" An Icelandic pirate lord, nicknamed Jackal, hollered out in his heavy accent.

"What do you think you're here for, genius?" Lucipher hollered back at the pirate lord, hearing the room laugh at him.

"Yes, my fine friend." Vaas answered Jackal. "It's about time we showed who runs things here. So, listen up, and listen good." Vaas warned them first. "We aren't going to be fucking blundering morons and just burst into the temple like a bunch of bath salt jack-offs. We need tactic."

"Why not!" Jackal protested. "Those Rakyat fuckers deserved to be attacked on-point!"

"Think first, before you want to go through something like that sort of idiocy, comrade." A different pirate lord stopped Jackal. "We can't just think of throwing ourselves into danger. Think of measurable ideas first."

"A measure? A _measure_?" Jackal scoffed. "Sorry, comrade, but I've bit my tongue for too long to hold back the fucking obvious. What about the increasing measure of epic failure?"

"Stop being such a _cunt_, Jackal." Vaas pointed straight at Jackal, glaring at him. "No wonder you've got that nickname. Nice on you." Vaas smirked at him, with an eyebrow raising to Jackal's second scoff. "You can't just jump in. I think my beautiful lady in the back of the room proved that many times in the past, no?" Vaas gestured his hand towards Mickey. Everyone looked over where Mickey was standing at, seeing the woman's amputated arm and missing eye. "Can't go back, like Arch did."

"Excuse me." An American pirate lord stopped Vaas. "_Mickey_ can help plan this?"

Vaas' eyebrows furrowed to the sound of the pirate lord's voice. "I don't like that tone you've got in your voice." Vaas glared at the man. "What's your fucking problem?"

"She looks like she's about ready to fall apart, if she takes another step. I mean," He gestured his hand at Mickey. "Missing hand. One hand with three fingers. One eye to see through. How can she be anymore useful that a full-bodied pirate lord?"

"Ah, if it isn't Vaas' favorite woman of the hour!" Jackal sarcastically greeted Mickey. "For a second there, I thought you'd be just like Hoyt, and not show up. Or, I thought his little _girl _would be the same and keep their opinions to themselves?" Jackal retorted, towards Mickey's direction, from the way he eyed at her.

The others in the room couldn't help but chuckle all together at that silent insult.

Mickey scoffed silently to herself. "I simply ask what you plan to do, after you just barge into their lair." She looks back to Jackal. "You can't possibly think of just exposing yourself with so much insolence. As much as I look badly damaged, I am more than helpful with the tactics of maneuvering with stealth. Something I propose you may not comprehend yourself." That was a retort, that was gradually given a smirk to by Jackal, when he overheard the pirate lords bite back laughter to her comeback.

"I expect to barge into their lair with force. No question." Jackal was obviously hard-headed about the idea. Something not always healthy for their pregnant ploy on attacking, but, it's what made him one of the best killers on the island.

"And then what?" Mickey asked the persistent pirate lord with a serious tone. Jackal raised his eyebrow. "After you take out the Rakyat with just force of entrance, then what? Pray that they don't have the same plan to kill us as well?" Mickey could tell that Jackal was understanding her question, and remained silent for the moment.

"Come here, mi chica." Vaas gestured his finger at Mickey. "I want you to stand right next to me on this."

Mickey walked to the front of the room full of staring men, to Vaas' side. "This temple is oddly located in the most isolated part of Rook Island." Mickey noticed on the map, seeing how the temple of Vaas' formality of his old home. "Must be something particularly important hiding there."

"Rakyats were always fucking strange." A different pirate lord, nicknamed Eyes, commented, while taking a drag from his lit cigar.

"Not something so terribly off to maneuver." Vaas pointed at the back of the temple image. "I remember that there's hardly enough back-up here, just because of the intense security taking patrol in the front, ever since the time we tried attacking there. Not _my_ idea, by-the-by!" Vaas dramatically pointed out the window. "It was Arch! I don't even know where he is, but, it's still his fault!" Vaas went back to the map, after making it clear that he was never the one to make mistakes on tasks.

"This temple is a sandbox." Mickey drew her finger over the outlines of the bird's eye-view-point of the temple. "Which means more trouble to get inside. In fact, there may be no sideway entrances, to our dismay."

"Only front and back ways." Vaas reminded her. "Which means we'll have to take out most of anyone that is guarding that way."

"With sniping." Mickey suddenly made an idea. "We need some of our guys to camp here," She pointed at a group of trees. "They may camouflage there and snipe. Night time seems best of them all to do such."

Then, a new idea popped into Vaas' mind. "Not with guns. We need something silent. Something like..."

In unison, Mickey and Vaas chanted, "Bow and arrows!"

Lucipher gasped dramatically, running up to the front of the room to Vaas and Mickey. "Here!" He pointed at the map, with his finger at the sidelines of the temple. "I can get my guys and myself to stealth behind a wall I remember seeing from our passing expedition! We can take down any upcoming guards by silently killing them with blades and dragging them off. Just like Assassin's Creed!" His eyes were shining brightly.

"Good boy." Mickey patted the side of Lucipher's face as approval.

"Same with the plan here." Vaas pointed to the opposing side of the temple image. "We can use silencers here, though, since this side is more exposed to the front. We need to maneuver these fuckers in the dark, and take them out like brainless goats."

"We all wear black!" Lucipher and Mickey said at the same time in pure glee, as if they were going on a shopping spree together.

"I can get my boys to search the back for hidden patrol." Jackal included himself in the plotting now. "If there's nothing, we'll sneak to that cave on the East side of the temple. I can easily take out any of the Rakyats that spot us. No problem."

"Dynamite!" Vaas pointed towards the back of the room at their bomb expert. "Get your fire-cracking ass over here."

Dynamite was a very young pirate lord, that looked like he could be turning seventeen that year. He was a completely silent pirate lord, but for personal reasons why. He never spoke up to anything, after the expedition of his bomb-fusion explosion that killed an entire ship of tourists. It puzzled most of the pirates as to why Dynamite became silent, but, they left him alone after that.

Dynamite spoke up in a husky voice. "If things become out of control, if we are spotted, then just save the show for the inside fights of the temple. I want all pirates to use something completely different for the outside part." Dynamite pushed back his short bangs. "Since Vaas and Mickey brought up arrows, I am in the mental process of producing bomb arrows for our firebugs. Something not hard to do, in my work, but highly dangerous to shoot. We could use that."

"Bomb arrows!" Jackal barked out. "That's some Hollywood shit right there, Dynamite! Make it happen!"

"Yes, well..." Dynamite cleared his throat, shyly.

"What about that C4, amigo?" Vaas asked, pressing on for the bomb prints.

"It's finally ready, in my workshop. I am keeping it under wraps, of course. It's all metallic, for a change. I've also added in new fission to the bomb, so this may be an explosion to remember."

"Fission versus fusion!" Vaas barks out in glee. "And my favorite expert picks fission! I like the way you think!" He roughly pats Dynamite's back, startling the young bomb expert.

"What about those bomb arrows? Are we going to have fission?!" Lucipher asks excitedly.

"Absolutely not. Don't you understand the power of fission?" Dynamite snapped at Lucipher. "If we use it like that, then we all will die!" He cleared his throat when he saw Lucipher back off slightly. "I am going to put low explosions in the bomb arrows, just because I fear of terrible accuracy from our bow and arrow shooters. It still gives of a good ounce of explosion to the target, though, just like shooting them with flare guns. I promise."

"And remember," Vaas raised his voice to all the pirate lords. "Don't get fucking cocky. Those Rakyat fuckers have armed themselves with some heavy shit, ever since that failed expedition. Thanks, Arch!" He hissed the former pirate lord's name with venom in his tone. "AKs and love guns everywhere! We have to tactically overpower these guys like a mother pile driving an ungrateful child!"

"Pfft. No problems on my end." Jackal scoffed, unable to help show off his arrogance.

"Tag teams, everyone!" Mickey cheered loudly at everyone.

[The Point Of Views Of A Pirate]

I hadn't thought much on the idea of Mickey just crumbling right before me. Her upbeat attitude was always the thing that masked it from me, just because I was either afraid to accept the fact that she was... dying.

When the word just comes up to my mind, I want to hit myself for even thinking that. I can't think Mickey will die on me, like this. I _can't_. That's so fucking messed up if I just wanted to accept the idea of Mickey dying very soon, and go on with my merry little life on the island. That would just be... It would be...

Mickey told me that she felt fine today, but, I didn't think so. The way she said it to me, I thought that she was immediately lying right to my face.

She hated it when others worried about her condition, and I couldn't blame her; I remember the first time I shot myself in the head. All because of one little definition of insanity that set me off the hinges of proving him wrong. What was I trying to prove, anyways? Killing myself was fun? Well, it was easy, but not fun. I just had to scream at everyone to leave me alone, once I had woke from my unconscious state. I still remember the fucking pain on the side of my temple, where the Doc had to slice my head open to extract the bullet. _Hurts_.

But, that didn't mean that Mickey had to hide it from me. She probably felt worse, though. Missing hand. One hand with three fingers. One eye. She felt like a fucking mess, and I knew it. But, covering it up with her proud, independence she showed with so much confidence made it feel like she felt nothing from that impacting experience of being captive by those Rakyat motherfuckers. I would have fallen for her act, if I didn't see through her demise.

"I _hate _these scars." Mickey rubbed her flat belly, where three long scars were exposed. I remember those scars from a year ago, when she was first attacked by a mother leopard in the wild, when she was hunting with me. The fucking cat was a fighter, but, I managed it off of her by scaring it away. She would have just bled to death on the spot, if I didn't feel so bad for her, enough to carry her all the way to the crazy Doc.

Mickey was standing in front of the old vanity in her shack, with her bolero jacket off, and her top as well, looking at her torso. Her bra was still on, which was obviously a shame for me. I was sitting behind her, across the room, just relaxing on an old, sturdy, wooden wardrobe she rarely used.

Mickey wasn't so shy about taking off her top in front of me now, since we've begun to get settled with our new sex life, routinely. I was fine with seeing her skin, but, I would not-surprisingly get riled up if Mickey did one little thing sensual around me. How could I not? She's a fucking tease, when she _doesn't _want to be.

I looked on at the large, healed scars on her belly, and made a sounding smirk. "I like them. They made you look even hotter." I then pointed at her lower back. "You've got those other scars from a jaguar attack a few months ago." I then pointed out another set of scars on the back of her left shoulder. "And, you got those scars from a koala pouncing you."

Mickey's lips frowned physically. "Everything _hates _me." She whined, throwing her tank top at a wooden chair at the vanity.

"Well, I like you." I shrugged one shoulder. "I like you a lot."

"Aw." Mickey smiled. I couldn't help but chuckle. Every time she made a smile, her lips looked like a grinning cat's. Kind of like that fucked up, purple cat from the old Alice In Wonderland film from the fifties. Not the new one. Fuck no. "What're you laughing at?"

"Your smile." I admitted, taking her by surprise. "You look like that cat from Alice In Wonderland."

Mickey's eye lit up with the film title reeling in her head. "You mean the Cheshire Cat? Oh, that cat reminds me _so_ much of you."

"Really?" I raised my eyebrow at her. I still couldn't help but smirk at her when she nodded her head. I begun quoting something from the Alice In Wonderland film. "If I were looking for a white rabbit... I'd ask the Mad Hatter." I randomly pointed to my left.

Mickey giggled, playing along. "Mad Hatter?" She looked to where I was pointing. "Oh no! I couldn't!"

"_Or_, there's the March Hare... In _that _direction." I now pointed to my right.

"Oh, thank you." Mickey politely curtsied to me, pretending to lift an invisible dress for fun's sake. "I think I'll go ask him-"

"Of course," I immediately stopped her, as the Cheshire Cat did, in the old film. "He's mad, too."

Mickey pretended to become flustered. "But, I don't want to go among _mad _people!" She stomped her foot, dramatically putting her only hand on her hip.

I laughed wickedly, like the purple cat. "Oh! You can't help that! Most everyone's _mad _here." I then began to start chuckling behind my hand, before I burst out laughing in a mocking matter. I then stopped, dramatically taking a deep breath, before continuing, "You may have noticed that _I'm _not all there, myself..."

Mickey laughed.

That fucking laugh. It was toxic. I always wanted to hear her laugh. Hell, even talk, or scream at me. Just two years of her talking, and I can't go on a single day without hearing it as assurance that I'm still alive.

"C'mere." I opened up my arms to her, with my hands extended out to her as well. "Come to papá."

"You'll never get over that, will you?" Mickey rolled her eyes, but proceeded to walk towards me and allowed me to embrace her.

"I'll call you mami, if you call me papi." I joked, and hugged her tightly in my arms when I felt her trying to lift her good arm up to either punch me in the face or shove me away. I just barked out laughing, along with her toxic chuckling. She laid her back against my chest, moving her legs up on the wardrobe to let me engulf her in my arms. I even wrapped my leg around her lap, so that I could cocoon her in my embrace.

"I am trapped." Mickey chuckled.

"Yes. You are." I couldn't help but nuzzle my face against the side of Mickey's. "All mine, too."

"... I can fight, you know." Mickey then brought up. I knew where this way going. "I want to join the fight."

"But, chica..." I didn't want to say the word 'no', because I knew Mickey would instantly flip out on me. I just didn't want her to get hurt in the fight...

"Do you look at me as useless?" Mickey asked me, in a more serious tone of voice. "Just because I am missing a hand...?"

"No!" I immediately answered. "Of fucking course not! You are more than useless, chica."

"Then, I am perfectly capable into fighting my own fight. I shouldn't ask permission to fight, anyhow." Mickey was being awfully persistent with the war about to go down. I was somewhat not surprised by this, because she had always included herself in fights. Not being able to include herself in this one just made her feel like she was being pushed to the sidelines.

I couldn't help but stop her once again. "You should lead the crew on the sidelines, chica. As much as I know you hate that, it's probably best."

"It's probably _best_." She hissed angrily. "I'm not fucking useless, Vaas!"

"I never even _said_ that, dammit!" I shouldn't have been surprised to hear Mickey raise her voice to the fact that she couldn't fight in the war. But, I couldn't also help myself into raising my voice, just for her to hear me. "I'm just saying you should stay safe on the leadership side."

Mickey's was silent. She was pissed off. "Let me go. I need to think." She tried prying her wrists out of my hold, but, I wouldn't let her go. "Leave me be!"

"Hey! Stop fucking flipping out on me!" I screamed at her. It wasn't the first of us to scream at each other, but, this was for personal reasons now. "You shouldn't throw yourself into danger like that, girl! You're-"

"Tell me, then." She stopped me midway through my explanation. "Tell me something that'll make me believe that I'm not useless. Tell me what you think of me." She leaned in closer to my face and whispered in a harsh voice. "What you _really _think."

"What do I honestly think of you, huh?" I couldn't help but lean in closer to her as well, feeling slightly intimidated by her stare. "You're more stronger than anyone else I had ever encountered on this island's life." Right there, I just begun to pour out my true feelings about herself. "You're a woman that can stand her grounds by herself, on her own! You holler orders and lead the pirate crew like a fucking Goddess! And, for health-sake, you're far from dead! You're... You're..."

I couldn't help it anymore. I just wanted to start fucking bawling like a baby at that point.

"You're mi niña... You're mi niña... Fuck!" I swore at myself for crying.

"Vaas. Don't be afraid." She raised her good hand up to caress my cheek. "I'll be fine. You'll see."

"I'm sick of losing everyone." I finally admitted. "I've got no family. I've got no friends. I don't even got no fucking pet." I spat the last sentence. "I just want to defend you, girl." It felt so fucking stupid to pour out my true feelings like this, when I'm all but a fucking mess, but, sometimes I need to cry, don't I?

"Stop all that crying now." Mickey turned her body fully towards me now. "It's okay to cry every now and then, but, don't cry forever on me. I won't be able to stay long, if you just keep crying like this."

"I deserve my bitter tears. Want some?!" I couldn't help but scream out, but, she wasn't phased by it.

"I'll take those tears and make you drink them. After that, you kiss me with those bitter lips, and I'll tell you everything is going to be okay. Okay?" Mickey made me smile a little to that sort of idea. She saw me crack a small smile on my face. "Smile some more, dear."

"You make me smile. That's all." I wiped my eye roughly with the heel of my hand. "Sorry. I don't cry often."

"I know. I know." She patted the top of my head like a pup.

How long have I been this fucking sad?

_**"They can't have you. (Keeping you for myself!) They can't have you. (Me, and no one else!) They can't have you. (I won't let you down!) I can't let you go! I'm going to save your life. I'm going to save your life!" **_**(Les Friction's "Save Your Life").**

**More to come very soon, in the next chapter!**


	14. The Explosion Hear 'Round The World

"I'll bet two grand, that we'll fuck up those Rakyat cocksuckers in one night!" Eyes, a Russian Pirate Lord, hollered out to the rest of the other lords, holding up a large roll of hundreds in his hand. "Who else wants to bet?"

"I do." Jackal smirked at Eyes. "Merely because I am always beating you at bets. Remember that cat fight we had a bet on last week?"

Vaas overheard the two Pirate Lords betting, and thought up an interesting question for Mickey. "Were you born rich, mi chica?"

Mickey made a pouty look on her face, with her eyebrows furrowing upward. "Not really." She pretended to sound ashamed. "I've never been rich before in my life. I don't really want to be. I hate rich people. Back when I was a child in England, the rich neighbors I lived nearby would always point me out from the rest of the kids, and call me a street urchin, and laugh. Rich snobs and wealthy jerks are always my rivals."

"Really? Then, we seriously have too much in common, mi chica. It explains why you're so feisty to our expensive slaves." Vaas smirked at Mickey, unable to not scratch his fingertips underneath of her chin, playfully, like he were scratching the underside of a cat's chin. "I'll put that on my list of one-million things we see eye-to-eye."

Mickey swatted Vaas' hand away, laughing. "Ah, but, I did have a lot of money once. It was all my college money I used to escape to this island, though."

"College? What did you want to be in your life, Mickey?"

"To be honest? I've always wanted to study mortuary science." Mickey admitted, seeing Vaas' eyebrows raise high, interested by her recent goal. "I don't know. Since Johnny passed, and father, I wanted to study the dead. I had always thought I could open up their hearts and brains to see what made them tick, before they died. What made them... as who they were."

"Sounds fucking dark." Vaas shouted, but, with a wicked smile on his face. "But, I think I'm just being hypocritical about it." After he gave Mickey a wink, Vaas turned to the large crowd of Pirate Lords and regular pirates to shout, "Move out!"

Sounds of guns being shifted to being strapped onto backs and chest were sounded. Reloading was being suited, and the heavy footsteps of the men went out of the large brick building they had their last meeting in, jogging out to large, armed vehicles to get ready for their departure to the Rakyat lair. All were familiar with this temple on the island, but, Mickey hadn't seen it once in her life on Rook. Mostly because Vaas had always told her to never venture as far as to the border of the Rakyat. It was something completely new for her to see very soon.

Vaas and Mickey jumped into an armed vehicle together, in the front, while heavily armed pirates piled into the back of the truck.

Before Vaas started up the large truck, he turned to Mickey and asked, "Ever heard of Dark Funeral?"

"Yes!" Mickey instantly answered, nodding her head. "I love them!"

"Then, get ready to head bang." Vaas went for the car ignition.

In the other armed truck, where Dynamite and Lucipher were in, the truck started up from the twist of a key, roaring out the engine's life. When it oozed out sound, Dynamite looked over to Vaas' truck, and saw through the windshield that Mickey and Vaas were both head banging to a loud, metallic song screaming out of the high quality speakers. But, since he couldn't hear the heavy metal music blaring, he thought they were doing that for no reason.

"What the fuck are they doing?" Dynamite asked Lucipher, pointing out at Vaas and Mickey's idiocy.

"Oh. They must be head banging to Dark Funeral music." Lucipher confirmed for the young bomb expert, before revving up the truck's tires to start driving.

"Huuh?" Dynamite made a confused look on his face, still watching Vaas and Mickey singing along to the music they were listening to. "I thought Vaas did not like heavy metal music?"

"That was _two years ago_." Lucipher pointed out, now driving down the dirt path. "Because Mickey has been listening to heavy metal so much for the past two years on this island, Vaas got really influenced by that heavy stuff. I think he's a big fan of Cradle of Filth now, actually."

"How do you know that?" Dynamite raised his eyebrow at Lucipher.

Then, just coming up to their side of the truck, they could finally hear the blaring music of black metal bursting out of Vaas' truck's speakers. Windows rolled down, and Vaas obnoxiously singing along with the Danni Filth singer. He was singing along to the song "Her Ghost In The Fog".

"Oh... _that's _how you know."

[Onward To Our Doom]

Evening hit down on the Rakyat Temple quickly that day. Lit torches of fire were lined up outside of the temple, and guards were on patrol for any outsider coming close to their domain. It had fallen very silent that night, that had put the guards on the edge of something feeling terribly off. It was way too silent for it to be this calm and fortunate of a safe night from any pirates coming onto their lair and attacking. Guards readied themselves with their loaded AKs and small pistols that were sheathed in hip holsters.

On the outskirts of the temple lair, six guards patrolled out to the side to check for anything in the dark. After a quick look around the dark area, that was only lit up by the full moon's light, there seemed to have not been anything lurking. They were about to turn back, when...

Behind their backs, their mouths were slapped shut by hands gripping their lips closed, and blades snaking up to the front of their necks. Before they could react, their throats were sliced open by the sharpened blades, and they instantly dropped dead on-spot. It was Lucipher and pirate comrades with him. When he saw the guards' bodies go slump, he gave a thumbs up over to his crew of pirates.

They got the signal, and gave the thumbs-up towards the front of the temple, where another crew of pirates were lurking, behind the darkness of the trees, brush, and the strong grip of a frozen night air.

Vaas was alongside with Mickey, underneath a group of jungle trees, that Mickey's own crew of archers had climbed into, armed with bow and arrows. Her men were each equipped with two separate quivers. One quiver had a set of normal, sharpened, steel arrows. The second quiver was equipped with the bomb arrows Dynamite had invented for their expedition. They were not allowed to use the bomb arrows, unless the pirates were found out, and being ambushed by a mob of Rakyat guards.

With Mickey's signal, two archers aimed high to the sky with normal arrows, and released. Their arrows silently flew out towards two guards that were standing high above watchtowers. Silently as mice, the arrows pierced through the top of the guards' heads with intense force, and sent them falling backwards onto their backs, instantly dead before landing. None of the guards below noticed the deaths.

"My darlings always know best." Mickey whispered over to Vaas.

"You think that's cool? Wait and see the finale." He retorted back, wickedly smirking.

"Dynamite." Mickey turned to the especially young Pirate Lord bomber, who was with Vaas and Mickey's crew. "Ready to move out soon?"

"Where is Jackal's signal?" Dynamite asked quickly, sounding worried.

Vaas hovered a hand over his own eyes to view far out the distance for Jackal and his own crew. The East of the temple was littered with five guards on the patrol, but merely because of the structure of the sidelines facing the same frontline that followed the face of the temple. They were all standing silently, hearing nothing out of sort, until the sound of a owl's coo from inside a nearby cave.

The sound made the edged guards go out to the cave and search for the owl's call. Vaas knew extremely well that it was no owl cry.

The cave was unnoticeably honed by black suited pirates, that were waiting for the Rakyat guards to approach. When the guards did, they were immediately pulled into the darkness, and shot dead by heavy silencers. Jackal and his crew manifested out of the darkness and gave the signal of a gun waved to Vaas' direction.

"Now, here we go." Vaas breathed out, giving a hard wave to his crew that were still at his back. "Get your shit together, dammit!"

"We have to get Dynamite inside the temple, with safety." Mickey reminded Vaas and her own crew. "He's the one carrying the C4 underneath his jacket."

For Dynamite's safety of being the brains of the C4, he demanded to be the one to set off the C4. As the creator, he wanted to be the destroyer. He was the only Pirate Lord given a bulletproof jacket that covered up the fission diseased C4 underneath. Once he was inside the temple, he could be able to throw out the C4 and make the land go live with something spectacularly new to witness.

As he kept pressing on about, it was going to be a show.

"Get me into that temple." Dynamite started ordering with a stern voice. "When I get into that temple, I want you all to run for your lives. I will be the one to set off this explosion, and will be the last out."

"But, why, amigo?" Vaas wanted to ask the teen bomber.

"I am not going to get my... _friends_... into more danger, like that cruise bombing. It haunts me that I couldn't warn the other pirates to get off-board, before the C4 went off on that ship..." Dynamite's eyes shifted down to the ground. "I am not going to be able to look at myself again if I hurt another."

"What about those Rakyat?" Mickey couldn't help but ask.

Dynamite's face scrunched up to disgust, to the name of the rivals. "I will laugh at their deaths."

"That's fucking heavy shit." Vaas rolled his eyes, but unable to stop his grinning towards Dynamite's short, insolent behavior.

"Do I make myself _abundantly_ clear?" Dynamite asked in a hiss. "Once I'm at the temple head, _do not_ follow. Just run."

Vaas and Mickey worriedly looked on at Dynamite. He was a mad genius, but, so-very young, to make them worry for his safety.

"Don't give me those looks." Dynamite hissed at Mickey and Vaas.

With that last order to the older Pirate Lords from a youngster lord, Mickey gave the signal to her archers to use the secondary quiver of bomb arrows. Vaas readied his ground crew to unsheathe their arms, and begin gearing for an attack.

Once Mickey threw down her arm as a signal, the archers aimed the bomb arrows to the sky and released the arrows in unison. Arrows of ten reigned high into the sky, finally catching the eyes of Rakyat guards to look up and point at the steel arrows flying. The heads of the arrows were pointed daggers, but rather, rounded and strapped with metallic iron, that were homing small, makeshift spike bombs.

Once the arrows hit the ground in front of the Rakyat guards, they all went off in attuned, synchronized explosions of fusion. Guards flew back, with limps ripping out of their attached flesh. Rakyat faces exposed to the flying spikes planted into the small bombs were shredded apart.

"H-Holy motherfucking shit balls, Dynamite!" Vaas couldn't help but scream out in horrific awe. "You call those _flares_?!"

"I don't always promise. I lied before." Dynamite lastly answered, before he, Vaas and his crew began pouring out onto the temple field.

Mickey and her archers also joined onto the field, using their new bomb arrows as a lethal weapon onto unfortunate Rakyats.

"Sorry for party rocking!" Lucipher could be heard screaming out from the West side of the temple, standing on the short, stone wall he mentioned earlier to hide behind with his own crew. When he screamed out his random outburst, his crew began pouring out from behind the short wall just like a family of parasitic spiders charging for the kills. Something ironically familiar from the Eight-Legged Freaks film. Lucipher's crew roared out battle cries, raising firearms, and began reigning Hell onto guards.

The sounds of bullets booming and screams piercing the ears of inaudible guards from inside the temple alerted them to pour out, also armed with heavy artillery, and began joining the fire-riddled outbreak.

Jackal and his crew came pouring out of the cave they hide beside and joined up to the small war, slicing through Rakyat guards and assisting wounded pirates that had fallen injured to the grounds. The Rakyat had doubled with the pirates riddled across the field, just as Vaas predicted in the past of their meeting. Most likely because of Arch's failure that made them edgy. It didn't matter what Arch was at the moment, though, because it was war.

"Keep Dynamite safe!" Mickey hollered out to her archers. "Don't fire any bombs at his direction! Fire at opposing sides!"

"Dynamite!" Vaas screamed out at Dynamite, who was standing close to him. "There's a path leading straight to the temple face!" He pointed out a crowded, bodied path that was covered with pirates and guards fighting. "Try prying through those fuckers, and get inside! We'll keep you covered!"

Dynamite didn't say anything. He listened to the older lord, and went for the path.

As Vaas had warned his men earlier to protect Dynamite, they did as he said. Dynamite was not armed, but for greater reasons why.

Unbeknownst to the other Pirate Lords, Dynamite hid another lie from them. He actually packed _two _C4 bombs underneath of his bulletproof jacket, that both defied each other by science. One was birthed with fusion, and the second was raised on fission. Combined together would likely leave him to die at his own creations, but, it was a high-risk he wanted to take.

With the fusion, it would obviously cause an entire outbreak of fire tearing through the walls of the temple in air. But, with fission, this lethal weapon would not bring out explosion. It would literally rip apart the temple and ground into two-split lands.

The Pirate Lords only knew about the fission C4, though. This would be a problem.

"Dynamite, get into the temple!" Jackal screamed out his order, firing at upcoming Rakyat guards that were about to defy Dynamite's goal. "I'll hold off whoever gets in your way, _towarzysz_!"

Mickey was armed with an Uzi pistol, in her good hand. She shot out rounds of sharp bullets at guards, while still hollering out orders to her crew. Vaas was doing the same, but he was armed with a ridiculously large machine gun in his hands, firing on-going rounds at guards.

"I killed more than you!" Vaas couldn't help but bellow out, to let Mickey hear.

Mickey shoved Vaas forward by the back. "In your dreams! Your calculation is severely impaired-"

_Swipe!_

"Ow!" Mickey screamed out, feeling something lash out at her cheek. It was a bullet, that sliced through the skin surface like a knife. Mickey's new cut began to bleed out heavily like spilled water. "My face!" She screamed out in rage, lifting up her Uzi pistol and started firing at the shooters opposing her.

Vaas heard Mickey's yelp and grabbed out at a random Rakyat guard charging at him with a dagger. He easily grabbed him with his giant hand rounding his throat. He brought him extremely close to his face and hissed in ire, "That's my baby girl you're fucking with, cocksucker." And, out of a cannibalizing desire, Vaas opened up his mouth and chomped down on the guard's cheek. The guard screamed out in pure agonizing pain, feeling his flesh being torn off by Vaas' K-9s, and was thrown to the ground instantly, with the small treads of skin ripping off of his face. Vaas shot down the guard while still chewing on the bleeding flesh in his teeth.

"Stop eating before dinner, Vaas! It's rude!" Vaas could hear Lucipher bark out in a sinister bellow of laughter.

"Shut up, kiddie! I'm _enjoying_ myself!"

The field was covered in fallen bodies and bullet shells littering the ground. He could hear explosions of bomb arrows hitting targeted guards and the walls of the temple from the outside, follow by the flock of spikes piercing anything at their paths. Dynamite studied this sight for a momentary time of his pushing and shoving, through the bodied pathway he tried creating within his calculating mind. He shoved the backs of guards out of his way, leaped over fallen comrades, and could hear his fellows screaming profanity and arrogance into the sky that watched him carefully.

Dynamite made it to the face of the temple, being followed by trusted pirates that were protecting his back. He and them ran into the temple and they started to fire their upgraded machine guns at the bodies of other Rakyat guards that were waiting for them inside. Dynamite could hear Lucipher and Mickey's screaming from the outside, closing into the face of the temple. He also heard Vaas and Jackal screaming at the pirates to follow suit.

_Blam!_

Dynamite was shot in the shoulder by surprise. It lodged straight into the socket of his shoulder, and he screamed out in pure agony. He held his shoulder and stopped running midway towards the temple stoop, unable to regain focus of his task momentarily.

"Get away from him!" Mickey screamed out at the guard that shot Dynamite. She raised her Uzi pistol and shot at the shooter. "Stay away from him! That's my little boy you're harming!"

Dynamite couldn't help but chuckle through his pain, when he heard Mickey's astronomical defense she made. He really wasn't her boy, but, Mickey was the type that looked out for her crew like they were really her children. Dynamite especially, just because he was younger, and more prone to being harmed.

"Dynamite, keep going!" Vaas' voice hollered out at Dynamite's direction. He ran into the temple with two pirates following suit. "Just fucking keep going!"

Dynamite was remembering back to the hollering Vaas made to him the first day they met, suddenly, and could still memorize the impressed look on Vaas' face when he told him that he was a bombing expert. The first bomb he made on Rook was a beginning C4 that blew up an entire village. Vaas could never take back the dissenting he made to the new comrade of the crew that day forward.

Truthfully, Dynamite never looked up to anyone. He just wanted friends.

Once reaching the top of the temple from awkward stumbling up the temple stairs, Dynamite turned around to the cries of war and screamed at his pirate comrades.

"Run!" His word of warning was only recognizable to the pirates that knew what he was gawking about. "Run, _now_!"

"Run, you fucking blundering idiots!" Vaas screamed at the pirates that were familiar to his profanity. "Run, run, run!"

Outside, now down to a few gang of fighters and attackers on the field, the sight of the Pirate Lords running frantically out of the temple gave the signal to the other pirates of what was about to happen. They held their fires from the Rakyat guards and also went running for their lives, following the lords out into a random hideout that Jackal was in before;

The cave.

No one said a word, when they got into the cave. The Rakyat guards were left to wonder why the pirates retreated, when...

_BOOM._

A sound so explosively silenced by an ear-piercing ring of deafening lit up the temple. They saw a amplifying blast of fire blow up into the sky with extreme force of explosives burst. The Pirate Lords' eyes widened to the sight of red light exploding, and the amply gush of hot wind from the C4's bomb shove them back forcefully, like a pile of leaves to a leaf-blower. Most of them were shoved back as far as towards the end of the cave they hid in, hitting the wall or rolling on the hard ground like fallen mountain rocks.

Vaas couldn't help but scream at the sight, but his scream was pitched into silence, because of the explosion piercing their ears to being briefly deaf. He was screaming something about the fusion, that he had no clue about. He was actually waiting for the fission.

Which happened exactly at the right time.

The fission went off, but it did not give a giant show of fire. Instead, once it went off, the land burst with the sound of rocks sliced from underneath the Earth, and the temple cut into half. The explosion was like a slice of God's Knife being brought down to temple. It was as if He sliced straight through the ground, like a knife slicing straight through butter. It literally split the temple apart into two, along with the grounds it stood upon, that followed the outside of the face. Luckily, the split of explosion did not direct towards the cave.

The fission left the pirates jaw-dropped and eyes widened like saucers. They saw a sight of a nuclear disaster.

"Dynamite!" Mickey screamed, once everyone's hearing came back to life. "Dynamite! You lied!" She couldn't help but cry. "You said only fission! You told us that you'd come back alive!"

"Dynamite!" Vaas got up to his feet, and darted straight out of the cave.

"Wait the fuck up, asshole!" Jackal screamed at Vaas, following the running Pirate Lord.

"I want to see, too!" Lucipher joined the run.

"Dynamite, my darling! Where art thou?!" Mickey tagged along the running of the pirates.

The four made it back to the heated, split, grounds of the burning field. Grass was now black and ashy. Trees were on fire and falling down from weakness. The temple was down into nothing, but bricks and memories, follow by the Earth it was once built upon being torn apart by the fission. There was nothing left to find in that temple, but, the lords were still in desperate need to find their youngster. Amidst to their actions, they were beginning to seriously care deeply for the successful mad genius they prayed to be alive.

Mickey looked up to the sky, seeing how it suddenly became a reddened color, and the clouds turned black from the smoke gathering. To her own imagination, the sky was literally on fire.

"Dynamite!" Vaas screamed the bomber's name, stepping over dead bodies of Rakyat guards. "Dynamite! Amigo! Where the fuck are you!"

"Dynamite!" Lucipher also hollered out. "Come on, you starry-eyed bastard! Just say something to us!"

The Pirate Lords continued screaming for Dynamite's name, until they heard the sound of someone purging from the rubble of bricks.

Vaas and Jackal darted towards the pile of rubble and began throwing off the bricks and bodies underneath. There, in seconds of uncovering, the lords found their star.

"Dynamite!" Mickey screamed in joyous horror, running to the young lad.

Dynamite was miraculously alive from the double explosion, but, in critical condition. He was on his back, eyes weary, and face covered in ash and dabs of whatever he purged out earlier, because of the strong aroma of smoke covering up his lungs. His upper body was fine, luckily removing the C4 bombs from his body quick enough to set them off.

But, his_ legs_ were not. A pillar from the temple structure landed down onto his shins and tore them off, now left with stumps. He bled heavily from his new leg stumps.

Vaas, out of his own character, picked up Dynamite's body in his arms and started carrying him off, with the Pirate Lords following behind, proudly looking on at their bomber, that weakily chuckled to the sound of Vaas screaming out with pride;

"He is the fucking horse! The Red Horse of War!" Vaas roared out, about to lift Dynamite's body into the air. "And the end was really, fucking _nigh_!"

**This story was mostly based on the view of the youngster in the crew, Dynamite. I saw him to represent the War Horse of The Apocalyptical Future. The one bringing destruction is who deserves the credit, and attention to his ire. And, I don't mean fire. I mean ****_ire_****.**

**But, we shall return very soon to what will happen next time, on the next chapter.**


	15. The Prosthetic Dream

"Mickey, can I speak to you alone?" Dynamite asked quietly, looking out from the doorway of his workshop.

Mickey was just about to pass by his workshop, with Vaas alongside with her, but, since she didn't like passing up on conversations, she asked Vaas to simply wait for her outside, while she went to go speak with the youngster Pirate Lord in his workshop.

"What's up, dear?" Mickey asked Dynamite, shutting the door behind her, once she was inside his workshop.

In the workshop of Dynamite's, it was everything that looked like a gray interior of an aircraft shop. Steel, thin walls and a steel plated floor, that was riddled with rusted bolts and forgotten tools, follow by failed blue prints that seemed to have aged with unimportance. There was one, giant worktable in the middle of the workshop, that held many on-going inventions Dynamite was so intrigued to finish very soon. Blue prints were scattered about or rolled up neatly to the side, while the middle of the surface was littered with gadgets, tools, knacks and more C4 inventions.

There was one, large window in the ceiling, that Dynamite only had, as a source of sunlight into his domain. The entire workshop smelled of spilled, days-old car gasoline, black oil, and metal. Dynamite always smelled the exact same.

"I wanted to tell you something." Dynamite pushed himself towards his worktable, in his new wheelchair.

Since the explosion that left Dynamite leg-less, he was now trapped in a wheelchair. He hated it to death, even though he knew well that his own creations would have landed him into a critical state. He began to understand the idea of being disabled from fight, just like Mickey was.

"I've an idea that will spark your interest." Dynamite grinned up at Mickey, lifting up a bag from the floor. He unhooked the bag and slid out a laptop from the pouch. Once he settled the laptop on the table surface, he dropped his bag back to the floor, and opened up the laptop screen.

On the screen, Dynamite showed visual blue prints of prosthetic limbs.

"Since I've gone limbless as you are, I had begun to start getting into the prosthetic age of technology, and get myself new legs." Dynamite shrugged slightly to himself. "Well, not technically _getting _them. I am more of creating these legs for myself."

"My goodness, Dynamite." Mickey smiled widely to the blue prints. "You've seriously outdone yourself!"

"I'm not done." Dynamite stopped Mickey with a raise of his hand. He clicked on a button on the laptop and revealed a completed project he made. "I have done my own project for the past month on prosthetic arms, and, well... I made you a _prosthetic arm_."

Mickey went silent for a moment.

"Here," Dynamite pushed his wheelchair over to the back of the room to go for something locked up in a silver safe, that stood six feet tall, touching the ceiling.

When Dynamite put in the combination to the safe, Mickey went to his side to help him pull open the heavy safe door with her only hand. The safe inside was surprisingly chilled with a lowered temperature, and dark. Inside, there were completed C4 fissions resting for action, and there was a lone, robotic limb sitting on a high shelf. Since Dynamite was unable to reach for it, Mickey obliged into retrieving it for him.

"This is what I mean." Dynamite took the robotic limb into his hands from Mickey. "I was fascinated by the idea of your original hand being cut off by those vultures of Rakyat earlier, and wanted to create a prosthetic arm for you."

Mickey couldn't stop looking at the robotic arm in pure awe. She had never once noticed that science had evolved so quickly in all her years, to where mankind was creating futuristic limbs for unfortunate, disabled fighters. She knew about prosthetic limbs in her past, but, she never once realized that fake limbs had begun to change dramatically over the technology era.

This arm was a typical metal stick that was suppose to be attached to her muscles. No, but instead, this arm was everything that looked like it were meant to be a future era's invention. It was a full arm, built deep to the metallic bone with technological advancements and nerves of steel. Just looking at the arm made Mickey's mind reel back to the futuristic, chrome-riddled arm she saw from the _Terminator_ film, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger.

"I hate to ask this from a lady, but..." Dynamite cleared his throat. "Will you be my lab-mouse?"

With an answer of a screeching _yes_, Mickey went running out of the workshop, laughing maniacally like a crazy person, leaving Vaas in her dust.

[The New Arm]

When Mickey went into the operation, Dynamite had to escort her to his secretive work area that was on the outskirts of Rook. He also had the crazy Doctor and Eyes assisting him on the operation. He also warned Mickey that the operation would be a long, agonizing process of work. It would require her for one, whole week of herself in bed, asleep, and unable to do anything, but wait to wake up again.

The entire time in Mickey's deep slumber through drugs that kept her restrained from pain, she could hear the faint voices of her operators gawking about passing tools and reattaching her muscles with the arm. Sounds of her numbed forearm being sawed off did not phase her to wake. Nor did the sounds of muscle being sliced open.

She could also hear that the old, boom box in the operating room was playing soothing music of Italian opera. Most songs she could recognize were from _Pavaroti_,_ Bocelli_, or more. Whoever it was, she could of cared less about the name, and just constantly listen to his music, and keep calm for as long as she heard the musicians' voices.

Mickey once couldn't stop laughing and crying uncontrollably in her sleep, because she had a ridiculously humorous dream of Vaas singing "Con Te Partiro" to her, in _Bocelli's_ majestic opera voice. She found it romantic of him to sing her an Italian love song, but at the same time, she couldn't stop giggling.

The operation took about the predicted week to complete. Since the prosthetic arm also had a built forearm, the three scientists had to remove Mickey's original forearm to make it fit perfectly into the elbow socket. They then reattached her muscles with the prosthetic insides, so that her nerves and muscles could go into full control of the robotic arm. This growth around the arm will also become part of her, just like an originally skinned arm would be.

The prosthetic arm was a light weight to control, just as a human arm was. But, this arm would not be allowed to be removed. Dynamite had to put extra time on the prosthetic arm to make it water-proof and resistant to elements and attack.

"How does your arm do in water?" Dynamite went to ask Mickey, once she was awake, and taking the longest bath to wash off the week.

"It's awesome! It doesn't go crazy or anything!" Mickey cheered out in glee, flexing her new, robotic arm. "Not so bad to lift, either."

After a while getting out of bathing and dressing up, Mickey was now back in the operating room, sitting on her stretcher, and letting the crazy Doctor, Eyes, and Dynamite examine her new arm.

The arm was changed, due to the idea of being constantly attacked on patrol Mickey did on the island. It use to be an extremely dark color of blue, but, with the changes done on the arm, it was now a silver, chrome-like, hue that shined like glass in sunlight. Which obviously hurt their eyes, or make them yelp out to the sight of mirror beams hitting their eyes.

"Your arm is in perfect condition, overall. Nothing seems out of place." Eyes examined her arm over and under, making sure no loose ends were left unnoticed by his eyes scanning her robotic arm over and over again. "Grip your hand for me, lily." Eyes asked Mickey.

Mickey nodded her head. She lifted up her prosthetic arm, hearing the gears inside hum smoothly to the movements she made to it. She focused her robotic fingers to close down around her metal palm, with their gears also rolling smoothly. She balled up her robotic hand and released, doing the process a couple of times over for Eyes to be sure that nothing was wrong.

All of the movements done to her arm were made by her natural nerves and muscles that grown into the robotic arm. She was moving her new arm like it were a normal, human arm, still attached to her. Even if it were twice as strong, as five men together, Mickey moved her prosthetic arm with ease, feeling how smooth it moved, like a feather. The sounds of the gears humming to every movement she made with her new arm comforted her ears with assurance. The three operators were also pleased by the sight of the arm moving with ease.

"Thank God for Capitalism that got me into the huge amounts of money for this project." Dynamite said, as he escorted Mickey out of the hidden base. "I believe I should also thank Japan for being such kind neighbors and sending me these body parts for experimenting. I should write a long letter of appreciation to them. All I need to do is learn Japanese..." He chuckled, seeing Mickey also laugh along.

"How does a youngster like you have so much brains?" Mickey asked Dynamite, before the two made it to the double, iron doors of the base.

"Well, I'm just as special as Einstein, I suppose."

[Back To Life]

"Holy shit." Vaas couldn't stop looking on at Mickey's new arm. "My girl is the Terminator..."

"Oh, stop it, you." Mickey blushed with the joy of having the attention back from Vaas, after being a week away from him. "I'm just a robot girl now."

Back home on the camp, reunited by a worrisome Vaas that was waiting for Mickey for the entire week on the camp grounds, the two were sitting in Vaas' shack, gawking about whatever they missed out from each others' disappearance.

Mickey showed off her arm to Vaas, wanting to prove her fact that science had evolved over the years, through her prosthetic arm. She extended her arm out to Vaas and opened up her robotic hand. Vaas took her hand in his and looked at her chrome arm.

He was astonished to see this amply change on his pirate girl. It was such an extreme change, that Vaas was ready to check if he were too high that day to count it.

"Hey, Vaas," Mickey's voice snapped Vaas out of his mild trance. He glanced up to look at Mickey's eye, smiling softly. "Do you sing Bocelli?"

"What the fuck?" Vaas' smile formed back to a laughing smirk, looking at Mickey with a confused look. "I don't do opera."

"Aw." Mickey's lips pouted slightly. "I had a funny dream of you singing me a love song from that singer! What ever drug the Doctor used on me to see humorous illusions, and of all things to imagine, I saw you singing to me in Bocelli's voice." Mickey began giggling again to the reoccurring memory. "It was so romantically humorous, too..."

Vaas shrugged one shoulder. "Sorry, _bambina_," Vaas mockingly used a name in Italian towards Mickey, "But, I don't, _and won't_, do opera. I'll sing Les Friction, though."

Mickey's eyes lit up. "Sing me something from them!"

"Get ready to cover your ears then, _bambina_." Before Vaas started to sing in his broken voice, he added in something. "I think I might call you _bambina_ for now on. It suits you."

"You are so full of it." Mickey rolled her eye.

**Are you so old school, that the science you live with seems unchangeable, until you realize the evolvement too late? Or, have you ever imagined your lover singing the most romantic song to you, while you were high off hospital drugs? I have.**

**More to come, in the next chapter!**


	16. We're Tied Together

_"You look like you eat a leaf a day." Vaas cackled evilly towards the petite pirate girl, who just snarled back with rage._

_"Shut up! You're the one that likes watching pointless porno every evening, pervert!" Mickey retorted back to the taller man, seeing him also snarl with rage._

_In the beginning of Mickey's new life on Rook, Vaas and her actually hated each other. Constantly, they would bicker back and forth about who was best in killing, or who was best at being leader of a crew. These gawks of pointless fights were usually annoying to the rest of the pirates that looked on with boredom._

_Vaas didn't like the idea of Mickey being a pirate lord, simply because she was a woman. He felt that being lord meant to be all man. He couldn't believe the fact that Hoyt ranked her to become pirate lord, and still wouldn't._

_Mickey didn't like Vaas, only because he was arrogant and full of himself constantly. She hated arrogance with a bloody passion, and he was what made her go off her hinges into constant, verbal fights with him about being cocky._

_"Go back to the family you failed, little girl." Vaas wickedly spat at Mickey._

_"How about you go kill yourself, like you failed to do beforehand?" Mickey spat back, with such insolence._

_That insult was everything that made Vaas hate her more._

_For months, the two never once gave each other the acknowledgement of their existence for a long while. They didn't even want to be on the same side of the island, which just made things practically complicated to work with, because Mickey wanted to be more close to her crew, than have to look at Vaas every second by her side. She would constantly plot on ideas of how to kill the psycho in his sleep, by slitting his throat, or just sneaking into his shack with a silencer. Whatever killed him, she would be glad._

_But, Mickey also had a sympathetic side to herself as well. Ever since that insult she made to Vaas, she would always dread to see the glares he threw at her. She felt terrible to even say those words, without thinking. She would wonder about apologizing, but, she knew Vaas wouldn't take the words kindly._

_The day came, though, when Mickey had saved Vaas from being gunned down by a pack of armed tourists that almost assassinated him. Mickey saved him out of her own courtesy, because she saw how defenseless he looked from being circled. When she saved him, she went to his side and breathed out, "I'm sorry for those words."_

_Vaas didn't say anything to that apology. But, it seemed to have sunk into his mind, when the day also came for his time to say the exact, same thing._

_It was when Mickey was attacked by the mother jaguar, that almost left her in shreds. After Vaas scared off the jaguar, he gathered Mickey in his arms and carried her all the way to the crazy Doctor's house to fix her up. He looked right at Mickey, and also said, "I'm sorry for my shit talk."_

_That day on, the two began to see things eye-to-eye. All because of close catastrophism that would have wiped them out, if it weren't for strange luck of finding each other._

[A Song For Adventurers]

Mickey was unsure of what Vaas truly thought of their success into destroying that temple. She wondered hard on what his feelings were on the ordeal. The only reason she had thought hard enough to care about that temple expedition was because of the many tales of Vaas' sister being inside of that place.

She could remember a month back, when Vaas was drunk by himself, that he would talk about his only sister, Citra. Mickey had never met the woman before. Not had she ever really wanted to, from the way Vaas spoke with such disgust in his voice, whenever the name of Citra was brought upon his lips. He spat venom like an irate cobra, and his eyes darkened with something sinister within the green, pale hue.

Mickey never asked much on his sister because of those constant looks of ire in himself that made her worry for his mental-sake.

Did she die in that explosion? Was she even there? Who knows.

"Hey, bambina." Vaas approached Mickey in her own shack, while she was mending to her prosthetic arm. He was found at the opened window of her shack, damping his arms across the bottom sill to look down at Mickey at her table. "Want to go to the Cliff with me?"

Mickey made a surprised look on her face. Vaas hated going to the Cliff. Merely because he hated how high up there were, opposing to the mountain wall.

"I was just planning to go today." Mickey smiled up at the taller pirate. "I thought you hated the Cliff, though?"

"I'll go with you, though, because I don't trust other fuckers dragging me out there." Vaas ruffled Mickey's head of long hair.

_Guide my life into destiny, _  
_And climb outside._  
_Reach up, and paint the sky with me, _  
_Finding you has changed everything._

The Cliff was something all pirates were usually afraid to go near. Since they always used that cliff as a suicide spot for pirates that can't handle the violent lifestyle on the island, the men think it's a cursed area to approach.

The pirates unable to take the lifestyle would go to the Cliff, grab a rope from the rack, tie it to the metallic edge of the Cliff, wrap the handmade nooses around their necks, and throw themselves off of the edge, strangling themselves to death. There was total of young pirates and older pirates killing themselves that year, but not so much as to exterminate the island's people.

Mickey and Vaas approached the Cliff with uneasiness. The sky was dark that day, with black clouds gathering up for the tropical storm arriving soon. The wind in the air blew hard against the trees and buildings of the island. It was cold, and dark. Something Vaas seriously hated as well, other than heights. He was use to sunlight and humidity, rather than the darkness.

Both the Pirate Lords approached the edge of the Cliff with caution, with their toes touching the edge, and heads leaned forward to look down at the ocean.

The water was black, and gray from the sky's poor source of light beaming down onto the crashing waves. The storm picked up the currents and made the waves crash abundantly rough against the mountain wall of the Cliff. The sounds of water crashing and a storm's distance booming sounds of thunder approaching were everything to make the two pirates take a step back from the edge.

"How does it feel?" Vaas asked Mickey, with his hand still holding her other, real hand. "With the edge of everything right at your feet?"

_We both break free, if we make it on top._  
_If one should fall, we both will drop. _  
_We move together, from here on out. _  
_What you need is what I'm about._

Mickey thought hard to herself on the question. Her hand gripped Vaas' hand in her's. "... Extraordinarily impaired."

Vaas laughed loudly, but, it sounded nervous at the same time. Mickey also laughed nervously.

"I thought that the Cliff wouldn't always be so scary to picture before yourself, but..." Vaas looked back to the edge of the cliff. "Then you take another look at it, and just think of it as... intimidatingly hard to come close to."

Mickey patted Vaas' shoulder as comfort, with her prosthetic hand. "The heights of the world are what we all fear, as human beings. When it's at our feet, then we have no other clue of what to do next about it." She also looked on at the edge that they both were dreading to go near again. "Sometimes, the control just makes us feel so... powerless? Weak? Inaudible? Who knows." Mickey shook Vaas' hand. "Maybe we should sit instead?"

Vaas nodded his head fast.

Both the pirates sat together in unison, with Vaas embracing Mickey tightly in his arms, pulling her back against his chest. He pressed his cheek against the top of her head, looping his arm around her stomach and collarbone.

Mickey damped both her arms over Vaas' arms, hugging his forearms close to her body.

_I'm all right with the world we're in. _  
_Let's end this night, _  
_And, let it go, with the morning light. _  
_Finding you has changed everything._

"Hey, Vaas." Mickey decided to dare herself into asking him. "Do you think... do you think your sister is dead?"

Vaas went silent for a moment.

"I mean," Mickey uncomfortably adjusted herself in his embrace, sensing his silence. "Do you think she was able to survive that explosion, like Dynamite did? Like we did?" She still heard him make no sound. "I don't mean to pry on the idea of there being Rakyat survival in the explosion, but... I'm just curious as to what you are thinking about the ordeal..."

With that thought, Vaas leaned in to whisper something in Mickey's ear. He quietly responded, "I felt like crying in joy."

Mickey glanced up at Vaas, a little confused by his response. Vaas noticed her glancing up at him and smiled. He petted the side of her head in mental comfort, while knitting his other fingers through the rips in her tank top playfully.

"I felt like a weight on my shoulders were finally lifted up. I didn't feel like Citra was on my damn back anymore." Vaas' voice was full of something different. Something Mickey found to be familiar, when she felt extremely happy over something traumatically eventful. "It was something that was made me feel so fucking happy. When we got back to camp, I couldn't stop crying in joy. I crouched down and just bawled in my hands for hours, just because I was so fucking glad to be rid of Citra."

Mickey knew this feeling as well. Something familiar she also felt, when she killed the entire family back in England. It was... a moment of kalopsia.

_We both break free, if we make it on top._  
_If one should fall, we both will drop. _  
_We move together, from here on out. _  
_What you need is what I'm about._

"You must of had a dreamy moment of kalopsia, then." Mickey joked, hearing Vaas chuckle. "That is the first."

"I've seen beauty in better things." Vaas rolled his eyes.

"Am I one of those things?" Mickey asked, with a pouty face.

Vaas smirked heavily to Mickey. "Always, bambina."

The two shared a kiss on the lips for a moment. When they broke apart, Vaas couldn't stop staring down at Mickey. His pale, green eyes were swirling with something indescribable to read aloud. He was smiling as well, but, not in a cynical attitude. More of something romantically obsessed. He couldn't help but kiss Mickey on her lips again, but pull her closer to him, to not let her go. He was experiencing another wave of kalopsia in his system once again.

Mickey did not pull away from him. She kissed him back, wrapping her good arm around his shoulders to press her palm into the back of his head. She could feel Vaas' hand still on her stomach, with his fingers snaking down to the hem of her shirt to sneak his hand underneath the fabric. She could feel skillful fingertips draw over the large, healed scars on her belly, smoothly and gently.

For once, she wouldn't smack his hand away. Mickey's face suddenly became flushed, when she begun to go back into the past of where she and Vaas first shared intimacy. She sometimes couldn't believe the idea that he was her's now, and would usually forget the idea. But, she'd never let any woman go near Vaas. Just as he would get jealous of someone flirting with her, Mickey would want to strangle any woman that tried being seductive or flirtatious around Vaas.

"Let's get mentally married." Vaas suddenly suggested, whispering against her lips.

Mickey felt like falling over. "Pardon me?"

"Why not? We should seriously marry." Vaas drew a wet line on Mickey's bottom lip with the tip of his tongue playfully. "You'll be mine, forever."

"Hm." Mickey's prosthetic arm raised up to tap her fingertip on her chin, thoughtfully. She glanced up at Vaas for a second, seeing that he had a stupid grin on his face. She made a laughing smile on her face from that. "I wonder hard on the idea of you being bound to one woman, Vaas."

"You shouldn't ponder." Vaas took Mickey's robotic hand into his, lacing their opposing fingers together. "I think living with you on the same island for two, whole years proves my competence to marry the worthy pirate princess I've been stalking for centuries."

Mickey chuckled lightly. "Competent is an euphemism. How about your _incompetence _you ignored? That would be more apt." She laughed hard, while Vaas became flustered and just embraced her tightly in his arms again, like a bear.

They both sat quietly together for another long moment, until Vaas asked something serious. "Want kids?"

Mickey's bright smile fell from her face quickly. "... Oh."

"What?" Vaas asked Mickey.

"... That something else broken about me, as well." She sighed a little to herself, finding her arms over her stomach. "I am unable to have children."

_Starting with one desire to grow, _  
_Our path is laid with seeds we sow. _  
_Into the universe, we fall._

"Six years ago, back in England, I was working as a cashier in a convenient market on night shifts. I was eventually met by my own doom, when two masked men barged into the store, with pistols. I was working alone at that time, so, they took advantage of me, and told me to give them all the money in the register. I did what they said, but, I could overhear one of the burglars saying something about not letting me go alive, because he was unsure of myself keeping silent about their thievery. The other burglar agreed silently with the other one, and took me into the restroom to lock me in.

But, before they left me, one of the men shot me in the lower abdomen, and left me to bleed to death. I miraculously lived through an entire night of laying half-dead in that restroom, finally found by a co-worker that came in for her morning shift.

When I was taken to the hospital, the doctor told me that I was able to move along normally again. But, he also told me that the bullet broke something inside of my abdomen, that struck right at the tubes that help produce children. He told me the horrible news that I... could never birth children."

Mickey sighed silently to herself, to the remembrance of the doctor's words still hitting her hard, like a ton of bricks falling from a constructed rooftop. She could still remember how hard she cried in her hospital bed, and just wanted to kill herself for becoming worthless. She constantly blamed the men that destroyed her, and then, just blamed God for making her life based on loneliness.

Vaas was also silent. He took in Mickey's story and snarled to the image of burglars damaging Mickey's life.

"... What would you have named your kid, then?" Vaas asked Mickey quietly, slowly wrapping his arms around her torso.

Mickey smiled a little to the question. "I always wanted a son, so that I could name him after my father." Mickey's eye shifted up to the dark sky. "His name was Jackson Hewitt Hutchinson, but, grandmother always called him "Jackie", for short. I always liked that nickname."

"Jackie?" Vaas smirked, lifting an eyebrow. "Huh... _Jackie_... What would you have named him, if he were _half-Hispanic_, then?"

"Hmm." Mickey hummed, thoughtfully, resting her head on Vaas' chest. "I like something related to the definition of _being brave_, or, _warrior_. Just something that proves strength and courage. Something special, in fact."

Vaas' lips stretched out to a grin. "I've got a name, then."

_We both break free, if we make it on top._  
_If one should fall, we both will drop. _  
_We move together, from here on out. _  
_What you need is what I'm about..._

After a long while of sitting and speaking to each other, Mickey and Vaas finally got up to their feet, and looked on at the lightening from afar the cliff they were on. Vaas held onto her prosthetic hand in his, while Mickey squeezed his hand tightly in her's.

"It looks like it's about to rain." Mickey said, sighing. "I thought this island wouldn't be rained on in ages."

"I thought something was missing." Vaas smirked, looking on at the approaching thunderstorm.

"Do you think it will rain for a short while?" Mickey asked him. "What if it doesn't stop, when it starts?"

Vaas looked down at Mickey, with something warm exposed from the look in his eyes. "Then, it will rain for millions of years."

Their moment of apt was soon cut off short, to the sounds of something screaming through the sky woke them up from their silence. It wasn't lightening, but rather, the ringing noise of bullets booming and civilians from the camp screaming in agony, and pleading mercy from an unknown assailant attacking their base.

Vaas and Mickey ran back to the camp together, unknowingly signing themselves away to their upcoming doom.

_We're tied together, now and forever!_  
_We're tied together, now and forever!_  
_What you need is what I'm about!_

**A moment of a final silence of romantics being together as long as they could be, before their world will be torn apart, by rage. The song through this chapter is a soft, but loving, tune from Les Friction. The song is called "What You Need", that describes eternality of adventurers being in love with each other. If you are someone that can relate to the song greatly with someone else you love, then, look it up. You may fall in love again.**

**Have you experienced _kalopsia_ before, after accomplishment? If you have, then, we're tied together. Now and forever.**

**What will happen to these lovers in the next chapter? Find out, if you dare to.**


	17. Father Destruction

When they returned to the camp, they saw the exact sight of Hell in front of them, once again.

Like the temple was broken and flared in Hell's Wrath, the camp was in shambles of fire and darkness. Trees were caught on fire. Shacks and brick rooftops were set a flame. Patches of fire and scattered bullet shells littered the grounds like the rain that was suppose to be pouring soon. Pirates were screaming for their lives inside burning shacks and buildings, while others were silenced by the blaring noise of gunshots ringing through the cackles of fire.

Hiding together behind the brush, Vaas and Mickey saw a man that led on the remaining Rakyat guards that survived the explosion. Vaas snarled heavily to the familiar face of the scarred man he remembered well.

_Crackle._

Was the sound of lightening in the sky, that also erupted into bolts of light that streamed the black, fiery sky with white lines of electricity. Cold air began to spill across the strong balls of fire and dead, fallen comrades, before the expected rain finally began to pour.

"We've got to find the other Pirate Lords." Mickey whispered quickly to Vaas. "We need their help!"

"... Okay." Vaas responded, looking away from the Rakyat guards long enough to glance at Mickey. "We need to find Jackal and Dynamite. Eyes should still be with that crazy Doctor. Lucipher and Ronnie should be somewhere on the outskirts of the island by now. They were hunting earlier."

"Jackal and Dynamite first. They're close-by." Mickey suggested first, seeing Vaas nod in agreement.

But, before the two could move out from the brush, a slave-escapee was running blindly into the arms of Rakyat onto the opened area. He seemed to be delirious from the entire attack of fire and gunshots, and was stumbling straight into their circle.

"What the fuck? Is this guy drunk?" One of the Rakyat guards stopped the escapee quickly with a grab of his hands on the escapee's vest.

The other four Rakyat men gathered slightly closer to take a good look at the delirious man stumbling, when they noticed... "Wh-What the fuck is he wearing?!" One of the guards screamed out in horror.

"Get him away from us! Get-"

_Boom!_

The Rakyat guards and the escapee exploded in an unknown source of the single fusion bomb where they were.

Five Rakyat men came running frantically into the opened area of where the explosion was heard, unbeknownst to entering a gunfire.

"_Żegnaj, _you fucking morons!" The familiar roar of Jackal's cackling rang out from the brush, jumping out with Dynamite by his side.

Both were armed tight with machine guns, easily taking the Rakyat men out with a sweep of the opened area with sharp bullets. Immediately, the Rakyat men dropped dead on their spots, screaming out in sheer pain and agony, before they died.

"Vaas! Mickey!" Dynamite hollered towards the two pirates' direction in the brush. "It's cleared out here! Assemble with us!"

Dynamite was walking now, thanks to his higher creativity of creating the perfect prosthetic legs for himself. They fitted into the bends of his knees perfectly, like stockings. They were, too, a shining color of a silver chrome, just like Mickey's cyber arm. From a glance at his new legs, anyone would think they looked like fitted, steel boots that lifted like normal legs on a human. They were all robotically futuristic to the eye.

"We've got more robots on our island!" Vaas cooed out, checking out Dynamite's new prosthetic legs. "And they're functional!"

"Indeed." Dynamite smirked, flexing his left, cyber leg. "I'm glad to be back up on my _feet_ again, for another war." Dynamite then turned to where the new, blackened pit of where the explosion took place and pointed towards it with his machine gun. "Did you see my plans come to life? I told you I'd make C4 vests for our slaves to wear, so that they could cause distraction on the other guys. Brilliant, if I do say so myself." He couldn't help but glorify over his perfect plans.

With Dynamite and Jackal with them now, the four made their way towards the Ropes, where they were met by two Rakyat guards that charged out of a shack to circle the four pirate lords.

Before the four did anything, two jovial pirates jumped straight off of the shack's roof, and landed straight down onto the unfortunate guards with their feet crushing down into their craniums. Before them now was Lucipher and Ronnie.

"You losers made us wait!" Lucipher couldn't help but yap. "We heard the call and came as quickly and possible to the kingdom!"

"Oh, wonderful." Vaas couldn't help, but scoff, at the two youngsters. "You're just in time to help the knights lead out the King and Queen," He pointed at himself and Mickey, "To safety. I'm sure we've got room for the two blundering morons we've tried avoiding for a while now."

"Words hurt, comrade!" Ronnie dramatically put both hands over his own chest, pretending to feel hurt.

"The gang is all here!" Mickey wanted to embrace them all in her arms. "I love you, guys."

"Onward, swines!" Vaas ordered out in a roar, pumping up all the pirate lords to start charging forth towards the other side of the land.

"Don't tell me what to do, asshole!" Jackal could help but snap at Vaas, while keeping up with the rest.

[The Pirates]

"I would suggest a new plan in action."

Mickey suggested to her crew to join Hoyt in his office, where he was being protected by a dozen of pirate men. The office windows were blocked up with large, flat, steel plates, and the only door to his office was blocked off by patrol. It was like he was the president, being under attack, and had to retreat into his office building, and being protected by heavily-armed men that would do his bidding.

Hoyt was at his usual desk, but not sitting down. He was pacing the office floor, irate by what was happening to his business. Since the Rakyat made their comeback, slaves were becoming escapees, and fleeing the cages they were in. Others found by Rakyat were shot down or tormented to slow deaths. This was harming his business greatly, and he wanted Citra dead for making it all a mess.

"I don't care if she was a secret agent or a fucking whore." Hoyt hissed furiously towards the pirate lords. "Get that bitch out of my business, right fucking now."

"That's not so simple, big boss." Lucipher stopped Hoyt on his demands. "We can't just go find her and kill her. She's got lead players on her team, and she's the fucking captain. She could be anywhere on this island..."

Hoyt then turned straight to Vaas, startling the pirate lord to flinch at his glare. "_You _said that those fucking savages would be _exterminated_! Why is this fucking bitch and her whipped-men still on my fucking case?!" He screamed at Vaas, with his voice raising in every, frustrated swear.

"It was our fault on the ordeal." Mickey stood up for Vaas, catching Hoyt's attention. "We didn't think that Citra would move out, without our knowledge."

"It's not _your_ fault, my girl." Hoyt stopped Mickey midway through her explanation. He pointed at the other pirate lords. "It's _these_ fuckers that should have known."

"I _did_." Dynamite hissed.

"Really?" Hoyt scoffed wickedly at Dynamite. "Because I still see fucking Rakyat all over this camp like cockroaches feasting!" He couldn't help but raise his voice on the seventeen-year-old bomb expert. "Did you do something to mistake the explosions into wiping out those Rakyat fuckers?"

"I make _no _mistakes." Dynamite snarled now, angered to the idea of Hoyt suggesting something wronged with his recent plan. "I précised _everything_ into perfection. Those C4s were everything to take out anything in the temple, and wipe out anyone else nearby the bombing. I even threw in that fission bomb for good measures!" Dynamite was bravely standing up for himself at this point.

"What if the Rakyat had a coup?" Mickey suddenly suggested strongly, stopping the two arguing men. "Suggesting that Vaas' sister could have known something was going to happen to her temple, she might have gone out to hide until that battle was over with? With more guards on her side? We could have just had a pointless fight of our lives back there!"

Vaas couldn't speak up now. He was stunned to the idea of Citra surviving the battle. "Don't fucking suggest that, bambina." Vaas hissed at Mickey. "_Don't_."

"It's everything that could have happened." Jackal decided to chimed in, reloading his machine gun. "That bitch was _always_ sneaky. She could have knew our plans from start, somehow... Mickey didn't open her mouth to anything before, when she was kidnapped. We know that." Jackal glanced at Vaas for a second. "Perhaps the bitch got information off of some other pirate-bitch?"

All at once, after thinking hard over the other options of finding out information on their recent attack, they all shouted out in unison, "_Arch_!"

"_Motherfucker_! That fucking _piece of shit_!" Hoyt slammed his fist down onto his desk surface twice, in pure rage, startling the other pirate lords. This was something new from Hoyt. He never made an outburst in his life. Hoyt dropped down into his leather chair, rubbing his face angrily. He then chuckled to himself, with his left-leg shaking, because of his nerves becoming fried in his fury. "Heh-heh..." He wanted to burst out laughing. "So, Arch _did_ run off, like a fucking pansy. He _did_ go to the other side of this island, and _join_ that bitch! He _did_ go and become a woman's _whipped-man_! _Ha_!"

"Hoyt." Mickey tried stopping Hoyt from being upset. "Please, don't yell-"

"Get your fucking _shit_ together, girl!" Hoyt suddenly snapped at Mickey, making her jump back. "You top the rest of these fucking pirates as an honor to everything violent! You should have suggested that fucking ideal to them, before you went out fighting like a bunch of fucking nimrods!"

"I didn't know it then!" Mickey screamed back at Hoyt. "How the fuck should I have guess Vaas had a sister? How the Hell was I suppose to know that she'd be _this_ fucking _crafty_? How the fuck do you want me to fix this, huh?!" She slammed her prosthetic fist down onto the desk surface hard, leaving a lovely dent in the wood.

"Kill that fucking bitch, now. For me." Hoyt snarled up at Mickey.

Mickey clicked her tongue, impatiently. "I'm so disappointed in you, Hoyt." Mickey backed off from him. "I thought you would choose a more honorable approach."

"Who needs honor, when you have a fucking whore topping you?" Hoyt scoffed at Mickey now. "She doesn't, so don't have any fucking _honor_ for her! Fuck, don't even bring up the word _honor_ to me, Mickey!"

"I didn't mean to say _honorable_ in such a manner, sir." Mickey stopped Hoyt in amidst of speaking. "I meant it by the matter of fucking slicing that bitch's throat like a fucking dog. I will _honorably_ hang her body over the camp and let others glorify over my work, as the _honor_ you want me to be."

Hoyt and Mickey stared down at each other for the longest moment of their lives, with glares and heavy thinking.

After a while, Hoyt found himself smirking up at Mickey. He roughly patted Mickey on her shoulder. "Why aren't you my daughter?"

"Because I'm not." Mickey exhaled heavily, dropping down to a crouching position, as if all her rage had put her down. She rubbed her face with her other, human hand, tiredly thinking hard on whatever she just rambled on about. "I don't scream often... I'm sorry."

She felt Hoyt pat her on the back of the head, as if it were a silent way of saying, "It's okay."

"I don't know what the fuck went wrong with you _brilliant_ plans." Hoyt looked back to the awaiting pirate lords. "But, you get out there, and bring that bitch's head to me. I don't care what the fuck happens to Arch anymore. Just kill _her_." Hoyt stands back up from his leather chair, circling around to the front of his desk. "Ruining my fucking business, those savages! She and those men are nothing, but barracks!" He then went back to Mickey. "Stand up, my girl." He pulled Mickey up by her arm. "Don't stay down, my girl! You should go and make me proud!"

Mickey look at Hoyt, with an unsure look on her face now. "You make me wonder about you health a lot, you know."

After a long discussion over a new plan, there was really nothing left to seriously ploy, except confront Citra and her men, and force her out, with violence.

While the rest of the pirate lords were stepping out of Hoyt's office, Vaas was stopped by the sound of Hoyt's voice calling his name back.

"Yeah, Hoyt?" Vaas went back into Hoyt's office.

Hoyt lit a cigar for himself at his desk, kicking up his feet on the desk surface. Once he took a drag and blew out the smoke, he looked straight at Vaas, with a serious look on his face. "Do you know why I always looked to Mickey for assistance?" He asked Vaas. "It's because she's my little girl. My _pride_ and _joy_!"

Vaas made a nervous look on his face, unsure of Hoyt's words.

"When I held her when she was _born_, I was crazy about her." Hoyt went on, cradling his arms against his chest, like he were holding an invisible infant in his embrace. He was actually using "born" as a metaphor, as a way to show her growth on the island since two years ago. "And, she grew so fast. I want to cry every time I see her. I might just be so fucking close to death as it is!" Hoyt burst out laughing to the idea of his death.

"And...?" Vaas wanted to get to the point.

"Get her back alive." Hoyt pointed straight at Vaas with the cigar. "Get my little girl back here alive, and with _all_ her limbs this time! I'm fucking sick of those Rakyat quivers taking advantage of my little girl, like she's so easy!"

"... All right, Hoyt. All right." Vaas quietly answers.

"Fantastic!" Hoyt grins widely at Vaas.

[A Flashback In Poker]

_(Two Years Ago...)_

_"I don't know how to play poker..." Mickey quietly mumbled, shyly, sitting at a round, poker table with Hoyt and two other pirate men._

_"Aw. Still so new to things." Hoyt couldn't help but laugh. "It's all right, sweet-tums. You can just watch professionals play."_

_And, by professionals, Hoyt was actually wanting the two pirate men dead that entire game. The two men were actually undercover agents from America, that had come to the island to investigate Hoyt's slave-trade. So far, they had great evidence on what he was doing, and they had to await their ride back to America._

_But, the only fault in their great plan, was that there was no rescue coming._

_"I want to see that!" Mickey noticed that one of the false-pirates had a shoulder holster, that held onto a blade. She never saw those before, and was gradually interested. She reached over for the holster, but was immediately grabbed by her wrist by the paranoid pirate. "H-Hey! What's your problem?!" Mickey yelped out, in shock._

_"Joseph-" Before the second false-pirate could yell his partner's name, he was stabbed straight through his throat, by Hoyt's quick maneuver of a knife._

_The pirate guards were immediately alerted by Hoyt's action and went for the other false-pirate that still gripped Mickey's wrist. The guards pointed down rifle barrels at the false-pirate's face, making him freeze where he was._

_"Sorry! No screaming in the game!" Hoyt cackled wickedly, now standing up from his chair, staring down at the false-pirate, with a wide grin on his face. He then pointed at the man's hand on Mickey. "Now, get your filthy hand off of my little girl. I don't like it when strange men get close to my daughter, you know!" Hoyt cheerfully pried the false-pirate's hand off of Mickey's wrist. Hoyt lied about Mickey being his daughter, but, since the false-pirate had no clue about her, he bought the lie. "Now, let's go through house rules again..."_

_Hoyt ordered his guards to grab the false-pirate's arms and hold them down onto the table surface._

_"Firstly, no one in the right mind should think of wrecking my business." Hoyt started, shuffling the poker cards in his hands. "Secondly, you should really, fucking think of not encumbering me with your fucking existence. I've got better things to do with my time, you know." Hoyt started laying out cards on the table, for the false-pirate, himself, and - for the fun of it - Mickey. "Thirdly, you should keep your hands to yourself! Putting your hands on a woman is cruel!" Hoyt glanced up at Mickey. "Especially my precious daughter here... that you almost bruised!"_

_Mickey nervously looked over at the false-pirate, then at the guards holding him down, and then, back to Hoyt. She already knew Hoyt was damaged in the head, but, she had no clue as to how much he could be._

_First, he was talking to the false-pirate like he was having coffee with him. on a calm, sunny afternoon. Second, he was deluded with the idea of Mickey being a long-lost daughter of his._

_"Mickey, dear! Do you check or do you stay?" Hoyt asked Mickey in a cheerful tone._

_Mickey didn't know what to really say. Other than, "... I don't know."_

_"Take an option, hon." Hoyt suggested instead. "I won't get mad."_

_"... Check?" Mickey randomly picked out, not really understanding the poker-term._

_Hoyt picked up the deck of cards and started passing out another ounce of cards to each player._

_"So! Mister Hansel!" Hoyt spoke up, in his normal, loud voice, to the false-pirate. "Name your price! Everyone has one."_

_"... I just want to fucking leave...!" Mister Hansel quivered out nervously._

_"Ah, now that's not fun." Hoyt clicked his tongue, follow by sighing heavily in disappointment. "You can't just price life. _I_ do that!" Hoyt suddenly raised his voice at Mister Hansel again, with his demeanor mixing randomly with his emotions. "_You're_ our puppets, and _we_ pull the strings!" Hoyt sneered at the false-pirate, tapping his finger down onto the table surface impatiently. "The system was designed to work that way!"_

_Mister Hansel didn't know what to say. He was just trapped._

_"Mickey, dear. Be a hon, and check Mister Hansel's cards for me. Would you kindly?" Hoyt asked Mickey._

_Mickey reached over the table to check Mister Hansel's facedown cards. She turned them over, and saw that they were low numbers._

_"Did he lose?" Mickey nervously asked Hoyt, unsure of what the score was._

_"Yes!" Hoyt cackled. "And, what of you?"_

_"Uh..." Mickey didn't know what to really say about her own cards. "Did I win?!" She showed Hoyt._

_"Oh! Look!" Hoyt showed his own cards to Mickey. "We've got the same cards!"_

_Mickey gasped dramatically. "Did I win?!" She repeated._

_Hoyt mimicked her dramatic gasp as hearty humor, laughing afterwards. "Yes, you did!" Hoyt nodded to Mickey. He then looked to Mister Hansel. "Which means... you are the only loser in this room." Hoyt nodded up to his guards to take Mister Hansel away._

_The guards lifted Mister Hansel out of his chair and dragged him straight out of the office, while Mickey and Hoyt could hear the screams of Mister Hansel begging for his life._

_Mickey watched Mister Hansel get dragged away so quickly, with a frightened hand over her lips. She felt a sweat drop run down the side of her face._

_"Aw! Don't make that face, my dear!" Hoyt got up from his chair to circle around to Mickey's side. He put both his hands on her shoulders, as a positivity factor. "You are going to get use to these things." Hoyt shrugged. "I mean, it's not like you can take pleasure from this work so often, when you're slicing and dicing stupid men, like Mister Hansel. But, that's production!"_

_Mickey shrugged to herself. "... I suppose so, sir?"_

_"Please. Call me Hoyt."_

_Since that day of the poker game, Hoyt had been strangely nicer to Mickey. It wasn't a strange love for her, though. It was more of a father's figurative way towards her that made him feel more at home, when she was around. He didn't love her in that sort of way, to where he would want to sleep with her. He just loved her as much as a father protected his daughter. It was platonic love, in fact._

_"Ah! My rosy-cheeked, new employees!" Hoyt approached his crowd of new slavers on the metallic stage. The crowd was below on floor, listening to what Hoyt had to say._

_Mickey could still remember a greet-and-meet Hoyt made for the new slavers that wanted to work for money and death. Mickey was familiar to the first speech Hoyt made, the first time Mickey was at her first appearance._

_Alongside the crowd, Mickey was in the front row, also wanting to hear Hoyt's words. She wasn't so fresh-faced at they were, but, it always sparked interest in her to hear whatever Hoyt had to say._

_"I'm not going to lie. We're all here, to make a buck. But," Hoyt puts his hands together in front of his chest. "It's the happiness of my people that gets me up each morning!" Hoyt was something else as he spoke. He spoke with such pride in his voice, and nothing else to fear before him. He was seriously a dark inspiration to all killers. "My father - rest his soul - was a diamond miner. He got up at the crack of dawn each morning, smoked a cigarette, and down into the Earth, he went. And, for that wonderful..."_

_Hoyt drifted off abruptly, being disturbed by the screams of a caged, failed-pirate in a metal box behind him. Others heard the man's screams, but, didn't mind. He held in his rage to scream at the trapped pirate long enough._

_Once he quieted down, Hoyt continued, "... That wonderful man... the company was God! And, I bring all that same reverence to my humble business here! And, I expect all of you to do the same." Hoyt gestured out his arms to the new employees, with a look of confidence on his face. Mickey looked up to Hoyt, in awe of his strong speech._

_After Hoyt went through the first two rules of starting off with his business to the new slavers, he went down to the final rule, that mattered most._

_"I'm an understanding boss. But, if you break _one_ of these rules..." Hoyt brought out a box of matches from his jacket pocket, and lit a match. He walked over to the captive pirate in the box, and dropped the match down into a small opening from the top. When the flare hit the pirate, he suddenly blew up into flames, startling all the new slavers, and Mickey, herself. "I'll roast you in the furnace, until your skin crackles... like chicken!" He grinned in such vice, it almost made some of the slavers want to run for the hills._

_Mickey listened hard to the pirate burning alive in the metal box, hearing him screaming until his vocal cords became ash. "... I like crackled chicken skin." She couldn't help but say aloud, thinking of having lunch soon._

_"It's fucking delicious, my little girl!" Hoyt agreed whole-heartedly._

**Hoyt's demeanor in Far Cry 3 reminded me of an angry, but loving, father, that would make an only-child happy with him being a dad. I always pictured Hoyt to have a hidden daughter on the island, just because of his fatherly-figurative way he speaks. Not a son, though. He wouldn't do well with a son, as Jason Brody has proven in the game. If the creators gave Hoyt a daughter in the game, then, I wouldn't be surprised if she said that he was the world's greatest dad, and then killed others on his behalf.**

**Is it strange to think a killer could be the best dad in the world? Sometimes, it happens.**

**More to come, in the next chapter!**


	18. King Of Amarillo

[Junction Of Pirates]

"Those fucking buffoons were clumsy enough to think that the Queen would be in her domain, during the recent attack." A Rakyat guard chuckled in a smug attitude, patrolling along an empty, dark valley, with another guard at his side. "I know Vaas and his crew are a bunch of violent rebels, but... I didn't think they were a bunch of fucking idiots as well."

The other Rakyat guard laughed along with the other. "Yeah. Citra and the other team players are still standing, and they're little camp is burning down, just like the temple did. I hope those _retards_ like an eye-for-an-eye comeback."

Suddenly, they heard a horrified gasp from a woman. "H-He used the _R_ word! That's utter rudeness!"

The panicked Rakyat guards armed themselves with their readied machine guns, looking behind and in front of them in the valley, to see if they saw anyone on the road. Strangely enough, there was no source of any woman in the valley.

"Hey!" A man's voice screamed from above their heads.

Both Rakyat men looked up, to the top of a close-by edge of a mountain cliff just feets above them. At the edge, they saw Ronnie and Lucipher poke their heads out of the edge, with something lit up in both their hands.

"Suck molotov, bitches!" Both Lucipher and Ronnie threw down two, glass liquor bottles full of gas, with lit clothes in the openings.

When the lit bottles hit the ground the Rakyat stood upon, their bodies lit up in orange and yellow fire. They screamed for help, as their flesh was quickly melting off of their limbs and torsos, just seconds from dropping dead. Ronnie and Lucipher cackled loudly to the sight of the two men burning up alive, until they watched their bodies fall flat, and flames going down into ashes.

Once the valley was cleared from the only-two patrolmen, the pirate crew jumped down onto the road from the cliff. Lucipher and Ronnie landed gracefully, like doves. Vaas and Jackal both landed down perfectly, with cigars still lit between their lips. Follow by that, Vaas had Mickey in his arms before they jumped, carrying her bridal style. Mickey felt like a Disney Princess in her dark angel's arms.

When Dynamite landed down onto the road, his heavy, cyber legs, hard. It shook the spot he landed on, caving it in with just inches of the dirt sinking down into the Earth.

"You could have landed on those guards and killed them, you know!" Lucipher whines at Dynamite.

"That's quite enough of that, I think." Dynamite hushes Lucipher to be quiet. "Proving without prejudice, I am not so heavy as you."

Mickey, becoming flustered, kicked one of the corpses angrily. "That _R_ word is not in the script! It's way too rude to say!"

After that situation was cleared, the pirate crew of pirate lords snuck through the darkness of the valley's shadows, using it as cover to approach the upcoming corner of the end of the road. They hid behind the mountain wall to peek behind, now witnessing what they were looking for.

In the opening, distances from the mountain wall they hid behind, the crew saw Arch and Citra. The two rivals were speaking of something closely, inaudible to the crew's ears. The two were guarded heavily by Rakyat men, that carried heavy firearms and weapons. Most likely in case if the pirates want to come back and scream outbreak for another war.

The crew made stupid grins on their faces, when they recognized the familiar, but hateful, face of their former pirate lord comrade, Arch. They were either so glad to see him, that they wanted to give him a knife-hug, or just run up to him while shooting a pistol in his face in point-blank range.

Ronnie pointed right at Arch, with the barrel of a gun from his hip holster. "I knew you were trouble, when you walked in..." He hissed at Arch's direction.

Vaas smacked the top of Ronnie's head playfully, startling the youngster pirate. "Enough talk. We have to find a way into killing those fuckers, without Citra being a fucking twat and running off again..." Vaas watched Citra closely, watching his sister speaking to Arch.

It was the first time Mickey had actually seen Citra. She could hardly see a close resemblance to her and Vaas, except for their haircuts, and for their big, round eyes they shared in similarity. Both their separate skin tones were greatly different, and they seemed to have shared nothing else in common, by appearance.

But, Mickey admitted, Citra was quite beautiful. She dressed exotic, and she even looked unique by personality.

Mickey made a pouty face, reminding herself of her own overall-appearance. She put her fingers over her eye-patch and looked down at her prosthetic arm. "I wish I looked that spectacular..."

"Oh, no way!" Vaas disagreed strongly with Mickey, with smoke fogging out of his mouth. "I fucking hate that about my sister! She thinks she looks so fucking good all the time. Always thinking she is on top of her game with other bitches that try to outrank her in looks. Ah, but, Mickey," Vaas brushed his knuckles against the side of Mickey's face, while smiling, "You're a beautiful wreck."

Mickey blushed heavily. "Hehehehehehe!" She nervously giggled out, like a bashful school girl.

Jackal shoved Vaas off. "Get a fucking room."

Jackal and Vaas shoved each other roughly like children for a moment, wanting to mentally dominate each other, before they heard the command of Arch's voice ordering the guards to move out. They watched as the men began to move out, away from the crew's hiding spot, marching on without a word said.

Arch looked at Citra for a final time, leaning in to peck a kiss on her lips, before he also departed with the men.

Citra went her own way, with guards following suit.

"... He kissed _The Thing_...!" Lucipher couldn't help but insult quietly, cackling softly.

"I know." Dynamite made a face of disgust. "I hope he mutates into something _grotesque_, and eats her body for supper. Like that new remake of "The Thing" film..."

Heeding Hoyt's command from before, they ignored Arch's existence, and went to go for Citra and her guards.

They quietly followed Citra into a different area of the valley, finding themselves looking at the sight of a new monument of a hidden area.

Before then, behind the mountain walls covered in curtains of dead, dark vines, they saw a monument of a ziggurat before them. It was a spectacular sight to behold for historians exploring the islands. It oozed the old life of ancient civilization ions ago, from the crumbling walls and sturdy bricks of old scripture on the sides of the structure. The temple stood higher than the original temple Citra stayed at not too long ago. It was so tall in height, that the tip of the ziggurat could almost touch the sky, and the hazy, blue moon shining down onto the landmark, making it the star of the night.

They could see dozens of Rakyat men and women gathered there, at the grounds of the ziggurat.

"Is that a Babylonian temple?!" Dynamite hissed loudly, utterly awe-struck. "I've wanted to live in one, since I first arrived to this island! Temples are just as precious to history as the infamous Dome Of The Rock!"

"Well, now you can't." Lucipher ruffled the top of Dynamite's head of spiky hair. "It's infested with Rakyat parasites."

Dynamite snarled angrily. "Well, fucking _bollocks_, then!"

"Will you guys get your shit together?!" Vaas screamed at the two blundering idiots, startling them to shut their mouths. "I don't care if she lives in the Taj Mahal or the Bavarian Castle! She's going to get the fucking fission-fusion combination of her fucking ass, when we set it off on this bitch!"

"I'm not in the middle of your gawking right now." Jackal scoffed at the three men. He glanced at Mickey. "We should think of this fucking temple's structure first."

"Agreed." Mickey nodded, scanning the opened area with her only-eye. "It seems that this temple is twice larger than the original temple. We should scout the area out first, before we think of reigning Hell on this place." Mickey looked to her pirate lords and ploy, "We should split up."

"Good choice." Dynamite nodded. "It'll be easier to check out the sidelines of this place quickly. We will scout the area for ten, whole minutes, considering the size of this place. After that, we must meet back here, without being noticed." Dynamite looked to the lords. "Is that amply clear for everyone?"

All of them nodded their heads firmly.

"Be careful." Jackal warned Dynamite. "I'm going to get fucking pissed if I hear one of those Rakyat cocksuckers capturing you."

"Don't be." Dynamite smirked at Jackal. "You are _not_ my _father_, so you shouldn't be so concerned over _my_ well-being." Dynamite sharply said to Jackal. "As much as I appreciate your concerns over me, I am more capable of watching out for myself."

"I'm not suggesting anything towards weakness, Dynamite. I'm just stating the facts." Jackal lastly smirked at Dynamite, before he departed off into the brush, with Lucipher and Ronnie following suit to find separate paths to cross.

Dynamite just scoffs to himself, but with a small smile on his face, before he, too, goes into the opposite direction of brush to start scouting.

Vaas and Mickey watched the others leave, and then, looked at each other, with bewildered looks on their faces.

This was the first time they have ever separated on a scouting or stalking expedition in one-and-a-half years. Since they became friends from start, they have been closely-knitted to each other's sides like stitches. They've never seriously separated before. Not to mention, separated for as long as ten minutes.

"Uh." Mickey nervously spoke up, catching Vaas' attention. "I guess I'll go this way." She pointed the direction Dynamite went through.

"Yeah..." Vaas quietly responds, but still sounded unsure.

"Don't worry!" Mickey pats her hands down on Vaas' broad shoulders. "It's only for ten minutes! We'll be back here in no time, for sure!"

"But, I mean..." But, Vaas stopped himself from protesting. "We've never seriously separated before, so..."

Mickey smiles up at Vaas. "It's not like you, Vaas..." She stated, catching him off guard. "It's not like you to get discouraged!" Mickey laughs, with an assuring sound.

Vaas smiles back to Mickey, feeling lifted from worry. "Okay, okay. Just be careful."

Both the pirate lords took their own ways into different paths, opposing from each other.

But, before Mickey went into a caved valley, she turned and called Vaas' name. He heard, and looked back to her. "Oh, I've an idea! Think of an answer for my question while I'm gone. That'll get your mind doing some reeling on your time." Mickey then told her question, "Tea and cake, or death?"

Vaas barked out laughing, remembering the same, old television show she got the question from. "Are we done with our debriefing, ma'am?" He winked at Mickey. He took one last drag from his cigar, dropping the rest on the ground. He then blew a kiss to Mickey's direction, with his mouth spewing out the cigar's smoke like a pipe, before he departed off.

[Just Another Arch On The Road]

On Mickey's own sneak around the sidelines of the ziggurat, she ran into Dynamite on the way. She met with him on the way, while stalking a group of Rakyat.

"Looks as if Citra has raised more awareness on the area. Why am I not surprised?" Dynamite clicked his tongue impatiently, scribbling down something onto a notepad he carried along with him on their expedition.

Mickey noticed that Dynamite wasn't looking down once at the notepad paper, but, his sketch of a new device playing out on the pencil and paper were going out rapidly, and not making one mistake, miraculously.

"I should invent a new set of firearms on the next attack. Perhaps a new junction of hand-held weapons combined with guns, or maybe..." When Dynamite was into a mental process, he often spoke to himself aloud, because of the calculation in his head making it difficult for himself to keep it all in his mind. Sure sign of genius insanity. "... No, then that'll make everyone else perish at the same time... Maybe I should... Hmm..."

"Hey!" Mickey grabs Dynamite's shoulder quickly, snapping him out of his trance. "We need to start moving. Those guards are moving out again."

"Yes, yes. I apologize." Dynamite put his notepad away in his pocket and followed Mickey in the brush.

Citra was nowhere to be found on their side of the temple, but, the familiar voice of someone speaking amongst the Rakyat guards caught their attentions. It was faint to hear, from all the rambling going on from gawking Rakyat men and heavy footsteps, so Mickey and Dynamite decided to close in to where the moving group of guards were heading. To seemed that the group were heading out further from the temple, onto a dirt road, that was exiting the perimeter.

Dynamite and Mickey snuck towards the group a bit more, to overhear the familiar voice amidst the Rakyat group, when...

_Click._

"Look what we found!"

Mickey and Dynamite were immediately grabbed by the back of their shirts and locked into heavy arms of Rakyat men. Guns where pointed straight at their faces, keeping them in their grips as well, holding them in chokeholds.

Amongst the Rakyat group approached their old comrade, Arch.

Arch was a former pirate lord of Hoyt's, who had vanished one year ago, after Mickey put him down in shame, after the expedition of taking out the Rakyat in order to control the trafficking building. He was a former competitive man towards Vaas, but, now is a rival. Arch was all Polish, but nothing like Jackal. Unlike Jackal, Arch could never keep his word to anything he was ordered to do. He stood as tall, weighed as much, and was even the same age as Vaas, which was something Vaas hated deeply. They did not share the same haircut or skin tone, though.

"Oh, look who decides to _actually_ show his face!" Mickey snapped at Arch. "We thought you died in your dishonor, you pig!"

Arch shot glares right at Mickey. "At least I have _all my limbs_. You two look like you've been through a shredder, and unfortunately survived."

Dynamite scoffed, catching Arch's attention. "Oh, of course. Your insults have yet to improve greatly. Why should I even think of wasting my time?"

"Ah, Dynamite. Still so fucking bold and noble." Arch approached Dynamite, with a knife in his hand. He pointed it at the side of Dynamite's face. "All that nobility is going straight to your head, you little stuck-up prick. And _you_," Arch turned his attention to Mickey. "How the fuck are you, you fucking thief?" He pointed the knife at Mickey's neck. "Still Hoyt's little fucking favorite? And, how's that psychopathic, cocksucking, little boyfriend of yours doing?"

Mickey glanced down at the knife, and looked back up at Arch. "They're doing splendid, Arch. Much better, ever since you ran off to that Rakyat whore."

Arch didn't use the knife, but, he did use his fist, and punched Mickey straight in the face. The hit was unexpected and almost threw Mickey into darkness. But, she kept up her grounds, and remained standing, and was hazily awake.

"Punching a woman is pure ignorance." Mickey snarled at Arch. "With my new arm, I will gladly rip your life apart... once again!"

"Shut the fuck up, you little bitch!" Arch screamed out at Mickey, in fury. "I should fucking kill you slowly, for all the years of being the fucking top-dog of the pirates. You made me look like a fucking newbie, compared to your fucking age, dammit!" He sounded ready to punch Mickey in the face as another good measure. But, Mickey looked on at him, not phased by his ire.

"Let her be!" Dynamite shouted at Arch. "Just because you were a worthless man of a past, does not mean you are given allowance to harm her!"

"_You_ and your fucking _mouth_..." Arch raised the knife up quickly to Dynamite's lips.

Dynamite clenched his teeth together, tightly.

"I should slice it right off. In fact," He made the Rakyat guard hold onto Dynamite more tightly, while he raised the blade up to the corner of Dynamite's lips. "... Let's put a smile on that face."

_Slice! Slice!_

Dynamite didn't scream once, but the sound of his lips' corners being cut were what Mickey heard, that finally woke up her senses to react.

With her prosthetic arm, she wrapped her metal hand around the Rakyat's wrist around her throat, and gripped it tightly. She gripped it so fast, and strongly, that she heard the bone snap on the inside of his flesh instantly. The man screamed out in pain, immediately letting Mickey go. When he did, Mickey spun around and gave a hard punch to his face, with her robotic hand. The punch landed so hard into the square of his face, it crushed the face-plate into pieces.

Blood spat out of the man's bruised lips, making him land down hard onto the ground, dead by a good punch.

"Fuck you, asshole." Mickey turned back to the Rakyat men and Arch, huffing angrily.

Arch stared down at Mickey's bloodied cyber hand. "Wh-What the fuck is that prosthetic hand made of?! Titanium?!"

"I don't need an _entire face_ to exterminate you!" Dynamite screamed out through his freshly-torn face, before he used his robotic feet to stomp straight down onto the Rakyat man's foot that held him back. As well as Mickey's power was in her new arm, was the same in Dynamite's new prosthetic legs. The stomp down on the man's foot crushed it into blood splatter and shards of flesh and bones flying onto the ground. As well, the man screamed and let go of Dynamite.

Mickey punched the man holding Dynamite, also crushing his face, and killed him off instantly.

"Don't fucking stand there!" Arch screamed at the other men, scaring them. "Kill them!"

Mickey tackled Arch onto the ground, using her metal hand to hold his head down, while she sat her weight down on his side.

A Rakyat man went for Mickey, with a knife in his hand, but was immediately taken down by a sharp kick to his stomach by Dynamite's cyber foot. The hit made the man go down instantly, holding his stomach with his arms, while coughing out blood. Dynamite, out of his character, kicked the man straight at his stomach for good measures, likely breaking through the barrier of his stomach's wall, and made the man purge out a mouthful of blood. He instantly died.

"I'm not going to kill you." Mickey warned Arch. She pressed his head down deeper onto the ground surface. "You're just excluded from my own problems. But, I'm thinking to grant you verbal access to Vaas." Before Mickey went to go help Dynamite, she reached down to Arch's ankle, and snapped one of them in half. He screamed out in sheer agony, feeling the snapped bone pierce out of his flesh. "Don't move. I'll be right back." She patted his screaming face, before jumping up to join Dynamite.

Dynamite and Mickey looked at the remaining guards, who looked back at the two cyborgs. They didn't know whether to shoot, or just flee. The pirates' prosthetic limbs suddenly put the Rakyat guards under frozen-shock, unable to move or speak. Just watching three of their men being taken down so quickly made them freeze.

Mickey saw this, and took an opportunity to silently-speak to them. She raised her real index finger up, and pressed it to her lips. She made a very silent "shh" sound out of her lips, giving a most cynical stare to the guards.

The guards at that moment were not thinking of Citra or Arch. They were mostly thinking of their own safety, and getting away from the rampaging cyborgs. Their minds clicked to the sound of Mickey's given chance to let them go, and so, they turned to the opened valley, and went running for their lives, leaving Arch behind.

"H-Hey!" Arch screamed at the fleeing pack of guards. "Where the fuck are you going?! Get back here-!"

Mickey shut him up with a stomp on his stomach. Her feet weren't cyber as Dynamite's, so the hard kick to his stomach didn't kill him off instantly.

"We should use Arch to get information." Dynamite says, but, his words were slurred, to the critical state of his sliced mouth.

Just looking at Dynamite's torn face made anyone cringe. He looked like he changed from a lovable bomb expert, to an illustrated, dark image of a psychopathic genius. The blood splattered on his face just told too much of his other side he tried very hard to hide, underneath his born-and-raised nobility.

"Let's pick his dumbass up," Mickey said to herself, going to an unconscious Arch's side to grab him and host him up. With her arm's strength, she was able to easily lift him and hike him over her shoulder like a gym towel. "Now, let's get back to the others. I think it's been ten minutes now..."

"Yeah..." Dynamite nodded, covering his lips with his hand, feeling like it was not gentleman-like to be exposing his torn face.

[Wrath To The Industry]

Venturing back to the same spot the crew promised to meet on, Mickey and Dynamite were met by their shocked pirate lords.

"Fuck! Dynamite!" Jackal immediately went to Dynamite. "What the fuck happened to you?!"

"_That_ happened." Dynamite pointed at Arch, that Mickey still carried. "We need to interrogate this man for information. Don't worry about my face. I can easily mend to this."

"What the fuck happened to _you_?" Vaas asked Mickey, cupping her chin in his hand to take a good look at her purple-bruising cheekbone.

"_This _happened." Mickey patted Arch's back.

The crew retreated from the spot and went to find their shortcut out off the enemy grounds.

They made it back to the camp, where they brought Arch to a large, brick building, full of pirates, that were sitting at multiple wooden bar tables or chairs, awaiting for their entertainment of watching their pirate lords torment another unfortunate soul. In the massive room they were in, the faint sounds of heavy metal music was also playing in the background.

They tied Arch down into a wooden chair with ropes, and woke him up from his brief blackout with a hard punch in his face.

When Arch came to, he looked up to the pirates filled in the room. When they saw his face, they all made surprised roars of laughter. Some of the pirates were men that Arch led before, as a pirate lord, but they never took him serious. Some came closer to take a good look at Arch's face, just to confirm in their metal state that it really was their former pirate lord they resented so much.

"Remember these guys, Arch?" Vaas cackled loudly, opening his arms out to gesture towards the grinning pirates. "Your fucking men that you did _nothing_ for!"

Mickey was also there, sitting at a table with other chuckling pirates that were muttering about Arch's appearance. Dynamite was sitting in the back, staring into a broken mirror, sewing his sliced lip corners shut with think, black strings. Jackal joined Vaas in the interrogation. Lucipher and Ronnie joined Mickey at her table.

"You fucking piece of shit!" Jackal screamed down at Arch's face. "You now made Dynamite look like the fucking Joker!" With a hand balled up to a fist, he delivered another punch in Arch's face. "Fuck you, asshole!" He then looked at Vaas. "Let's just exclude this fucker from our expedition. Hoyt says he's fucking worthless."

"Wait a moment, hermano." Vaas stops Jackal with a heavy pat on his shoulder. He smiles at the man. "We should at least pry out some things from Arch. It'd might be fucking useful later on when we know what Citra wants with us."

Jackal didn't like the idea, but he scoffed it off, and let Vaas do what he wanted.

"Now." Vaas approached Arch, who fearfully looked up at Vaas. "Tell us what you know with what my bitch-ass sister is planning... or we will _kill_ you." Vaas patted the side of Arch's head, chuckling down at Arch's groans. "Don't fret. We won't give you a _painful_ death, for everyone fears that the most..."

"... Fuck you." Arch spat blood out of his mouth, from the recent punch from Arch, onto the floor. "Citra's going to fucking take you down. _All_ of you!" He screamed out to the other pirates listening and watching. Hearing Arch shout made the pirates just laugh or become more chipper. "She wants you out of the fucking picture, Vaas!" Arch then started talking to Vaas. "She wants you and your other fucking pirate lords out of the picture, so that you won't have to get in the fucking way of reigning Rook Island! Isn't that fucking obvious, you oblivious piece of shit!"

"Aww!" Lucipher cooed out. "Swearing isn't good for your health, Arch. It's only good for Vaas'!"

"Point taken." Vaas agreed with Lucipher, giving the youngster a flashy grin.

"As of you!" Arch spat blood at Lucipher's direction. "Burn in Hell!"

Vaas delivered a third punch into Arch's face, shutting him up. "You shouldn't take to kids like that, _Archie_. It's fucking bad for their mental state." Vaas rolled his shoulders, making an uneasy sigh. "I don't like it when people try to dominate me." Vaas breathed out, in the most uneasy way. He sounded officially pissed off with Arch's words. "Just the fucking idea of my bitch sister wanting to dominate me is just..." He shifted his eyes down to Arch, who was withering in pain. He crouched down to Arch's height, putting his hand under his chin to lift his head up slight, and scream, "... Makes me fucking _pissed_!"

Dynamite finished sewing his sliced face shut, at the right time when he heard Vaas shout something over to him.

"Turn up that stereo, hermano! I don't want the others to hear this shit going down!" Vaas turned back to Arch, with the most insane expression on his face. "I want the guys, that use to work with this asshole, to fucking rage... Because," He turned to the room of pirates, hand-picking out the former crew of Arch's from their tables. "Unlike me, these guys abhor Archie more than me! I shouldn't take the opportunity from them!"

Dynamite snorted, looking over to the large stereo, that was standing right next to his lone table. The stereo was old from age, but it remained standing high as six-feet, and the towering speakers were still in great condition, enough to blare out their heavy music they often listened to. The band playing was Issues.

"I'm not listening to pop culture shit." Dynamite reminded Vaas, before turning up the volume to one-hundred percent.

The stereo was blasting out the chorus to a familiar heavy metal song screaming out profanity with growls and unintelligent words. The guitars and drumming stood out the most, covering up whatever else was going on in the brick building.

At the same time, the pirates that formally worked alongside with Arch, which were at least seven of them, ran straight at Arch with knives, screaming out jovial insanity to charge at the tied down man. It was like watching a pack of rabid, wild wolves pouncing down on an injured boar, in the jungle. Everyone else was watching the slaughter, like it were a horror flick of a group of serial killers exposing malice to a helpless victim.

Vaas and Jackal didn't join the fray. While Jackal went to go check on Dynamite's face, Vaas went to Mickey's side, pulling up a chair next to her, and looping his arms over her shoulders.

"I'm sorry about your sister not being dead!" Mickey spoke up loudly, for Vaas to hear her.

"Don't be!" Vaas also shouted back, patting Mickey's shoulder. "She's going to be dead the next time we meet! I'm going to get one-hundred men, armed with the heaviest artillery, and we will fucking rage on this bitch, like it's a fucking mosh pit!" He barked out laughing, in a cynical way. His laughter almost matched with the insanity playing out of the stereo speakers.

"You are such a fucking lunatic, you know!" Mickey couldn't help but retort, seeing Vaas' face fall. "Absolutely _nuts_!"

"Oh, please, tell me more, Gordon Ramsey!" Vaas lightly joked, directing it towards Mickey's heavy British accent. "But, yes, I do, bambina!" Vaas grinned widely, looking down at her. "Aw, my poor Pony." He brushed a careful thumb over her bruised cheek. "My poor little Pony. We should never think of separating again. I think it's terrible!" And with that, Vaas suddenly remembered, "I thought of an answer!"

"Don't tell me!" Mickey stopped him with her fingertips, of her real hand, pressed on his lips. "Was it... tea and cake?!"

Vaas held Mickey's wrist in his hand and kissed her fingertips. "_Yes_."

Mickey blushed hard, to Vaas' small kiss on her fingertips she held to his lips. She always melted, every time he show a huge sign of affection towards her. Even if it were a corny one, Vaas showed compassion, in the most strangest of ways Mickey's never seriously experienced out of a person before.

Vaas noticed her face turning slightly pink from shyness and gave her a toothy smile, leaning in to kiss her on the corner of her lips.

"Don't do that!" Mickey shoved Vaas out of his chair, in full embarrassment. "Why must you make me feel _so_ flustered?!" She said through her flustered state, while hearing Vaas laughing out in mockery, throwing his arms around her to kiss her hard on the lips. Despite feeling embarrassed, Mickey kissed Vaas back, and a way to hide her face.

"Don't fret, my precious bambina. You and I will regime, and will reign again."

Tomorrow was going to be a brand new, darkened day, full of rage.

**The meeting of Arch, and the end of his invisible trail for our pirate crew. Dynamite's newest slice at life. Haha, get it? Get it...? I'll get my jacket. Does Vaas even like crunk or heavy metal music? No. But, in my world, he does. Pretty much because I do. :D**

**Just thinking too much on heavy metal music lately, which led me to write this chapter out in this manner. It's mostly likely not the most spectacular of them all, but, I couldn't help it. Even if this fanfiction were inspired by rock opera, Issues sums up the whole personality of this: dysfunctional, and screaming utter confusion. The killing theme of Arch's demise is "King Of Amarillo" by the same band.**

**More to come, in the next chapter!**


	19. Bold Wolf, Timid Rabbit

"Why would Citra want to take you down, Vaas? I thought you meant nothing to her any longer?"

In a serious matter of distributing the situation, the pirate lords gathered into the large brick building of the recent hang out spot, where they slaughtered Arch. It was emptied out, with trash littering the floor, walls painted with black and red graffiti high-and-low, chairs flipped or sitting properly, and tables in the same positions. The large, uncovered, crackled windows to the brick building shone sunlight into the large, room with echoes.

The problem with Citra wanting to rid of Vaas was something that intrigued the pirate lords into knowing more. The next person that would know anything about Citra's rage towards Vaas, was Vaas himself.

"What is this? Counseling? I don't have time for this." Vaas wanted to get up for his chair and leave, but of course, he couldn't. With the stares he received from the other pirate lords, that he worked so closely with for years, made him psychologically-chained down into his chair. "Citra's a fucking power-hungry bitch, just like my damn parents. What more do you guys want from me?" He hissed, taking a drag from his newly-lit cigarette.

Jackal shook his head, unsatisfied by the small portion of an answer. "What the fuck does she want with _us_, then? Is she that fucking power-hungry, that she'd kill her own brother and his friends? Hoyt doesn't seem to bother her at all, but _we _do. That's all that makes us fucking ponder, _Vaas_."

"I preferably desire truth, and to see the light to this situation." Mickey added in, seeing Jackal nod his head in agreement. "We've all have no connection to Citra, except for Vaas, and yet, she desires to kill us _all_ off, without question. How does it make sense to kill us? Her archenemy is Vaas at the moment." Mickey glanced over at Vaas, seeing him become tense with thoughts reeling in his head. "Vaas. What does she want?"

All the pirate lords stared right at Vaas, unbeknownst to making him feel even more tensed as it is.

"Stop fucking staring! All of you!" Vaas snapped at the lords, raising his voice. "You want the fucking truth out of me? Do you fucking want the truth?"

"I think we just asked that." Jackal scoffed.

"_Fine_." Vaas sighed heavily, with smoke blowing out of his mouth.

"It was a long, fucking time ago, before anyone knew about Citra. After my parents died, we both had to take the throne. But, my fucked up parents had this _brilliant _fucking idea that if Citra and I fucked, then she would birth a suitable leader for the Rakyat future." Vaas clenched his teeth tightly, rubbing his forehead with a frustrated hand. "Just the fucking thought of my sister being under me... made me fucking run for my life. I told her that I would just kill her, and find a suitable woman to run things, taking her place.

"That's where the entire fight for our dominance came to play. I wanted to be the fucking King, but she wanted to be the fucking Queen. I know pretty fucking well that neither of us can rule together, _nor_ would we. Citra could find a fucking man worthy to take my place, but, then she had to stick her fucking nose in my business, and see that I was becoming more powerful as a pirate lord for Hoyt. You guys were on my side as pirate lords, and are ten-time stronger than what she could come up with."

Vaas then looked at Mickey, taking her real hand into his. "Then, Citra found out about mi chica here, and got fucking pissed off that I found a suitable woman to join alongside me to take her down." He squeezed Mickey's hand in his. "When Citra said that she would take Mickey down, I didn't want it to happen. I planned a war with her, behind your backs... I shouldn't feel sorry for it, though. The abhor I still feel for Citra still burns pretty fucking deep. Like a lava-burning iron melting straight through concrete, I hate her that much..."

After the long talk from Vaas, Dynamite couldn't help but add in something. "So, she is mostly angered by the idea of high-treason you exposed to on the Rakyat? A former family that finds you unsuited to become a King?"

Vaas nodded his head, rolling his eyes.

"You've got quite the enemy, then." Mickey squeezed Vaas' hand in her's. "I am now understanding your feelings about Citra..."

[The Dark Wolf]

"You are the Devil!" A reject screamed out, after being told that she was going to die. "You are the Devil himself!"

Upon the large, wooden, sturdy stage, littered with bodies of recently shot rejects, the last one was a religious woman, who was guilty of killing her own husband of five years, in order to be with his brother. When she arrived to the island, she was met by the unfortunate reaper named Vaas, who saw through her cutesy lies and smiles, and pointed out treachery at her.

Vaas wickedly cackled to the religious woman's cries. "I think what you bible-thumpers constantly forget is that "devil" is not the serious namesake for Satan. A devil is the definition of a minion _to_ Satan, but, you'd never comprehend that, would you? Of course, no one reads the Psalms much anymore..." He snickered down at her. "And, why would you call me the evil one? _You're_ the one that won't admit to the fact that you killed your husband to be a little whore! At least_ I_ will _admit_ that _I'm_ a fucking psychopath!"

The woman started murmuring prayers to herself, under her breath, as she could hear Vaas reload his pistol with another round of bullets. She shook hard when she heard the pistol cock back.

"I honestly have no fucking clue what she's praying." Vaas shrugged to the other pirates listening, scratching the side of his head with the barrel of the gun. "I think it's suppose to be a fucking prayer to Jesus Christ. You know, the guy on the stick?" He scoffed to the sound of the other pirates laughing. "Where's you little God when you need him, woman?" Vaas pointed the gun barrel down to the woman's temple. "This is Hell."

_Bang._

A flash of a gunshot sparked out, and the woman's body finally went limp, slumping down into the stage floor.

"Ouch." Vaas rubbed the top of his head, where he shot the woman dead. "That's got to hurt."

While a pirate was ordered to clean up the stage and rid of the bodies, Vaas left to go find Mickey. Whenever he had to go take care of the rejects, Mickey would usually go to an isolated part of the massive beach, and just sit there, and think. She had no real friends on the island of Rook, and the pirate lords usually wanted to not being around her much, because she was Vaas' girl. She was mostly alone.

The beach was the exact place he found her at. She was sitting on a short, flat rock, running her prosthetic fingers through the sand under her feet. She seemed to have been in thought about something, because of how focused she appeared from mere sand-digging.

Vaas found a deep desire to run out to Mickey and tackle her. Just something he knew would freak her out, just because she was usually scared to death of jump-scares. He started high-tailing it to Mickey, with his arms out to capture her, when-

_Trip!_

Vaas' foot tripped over a large crab crawling pass-by, and he went landing face-first into the sand, just beside Mickey's spot.

It startled her, all right, but then she started bursting out laughing at Vaas' failure into trying to scare her.

"Don't laugh at me!" Vaas shouted, lifting his upper-body up with his arms, seeing Mickey bellowing out laughter, follow by tearing up hard.

"Y-You landed on your f-face!" Mickey couldn't help fall over her sitting rock, holding her stomach, still laughing like a madwoman.

After being humiliated by the only person that saw him fail miserably at tackling, Vaas and Mickey finally calmed down.

"You looked as if you were thinking of something earlier." Vaas reminds her, dusting off her shoulder.

Mickey nodded fast, still smiling widely. "I've been given great news from Dynamite!" She clapped her metal hand and real hand together. "He told me that he is in the process of creating a prosthetic eye for me!" She sounded absolutely giddy about the idea.

Vaas raised an eyebrow at her. "Isn't that relatable to your fake eye?"

"Nope!" Mickey shook her head, cheerfully. "Dynamite said that the prosthetic eye he is working on is something highly-advanced. He told me that it would be just like a glowing, robotic eye, that can actually move and function just like an eye. But, that would mean I have a metal ball in my eye-socket..." She giggled to herself lightly. "Just to sum it up, he told me that it would be exactly like the robotic eye from the Terminator... Everything he's influenced by, of course."

Vaas scoffed to himself, slightly awe-struck by Dynamite's progress in advancing his own work. "If he keeps this up, you'll be a fully-walking cyborg."

"I just want an eye again. I'm unhappy with the fact that I must be forever permanent-damaged with only one eye."

"Oh, I know, bambina. I know." Vaas picked up Mickey from the flat rock and sat her down in his lap. "You are going to be a robot. I get it."

"I apologize for not being... _all_. I'm constantly ending up in terrible places." Mickey laid the back of her head against Vaas' flat chest. "What did you do today, by-the-by?"

"Took care of those rejects. Some woman kept calling me Satan." Vaas chuckled to Satan's name. "I think I'm a _bad guy_..."

"No." Mickey confidentially shook her head. "If you were called Satan, then, maybe you aren't such a bad person."

"_What_?" Vaas laughed. "Of course, Satan's name used in vein is a fucking reference to being a wicked person, mi chica."

"I concur!" Mickey looked up at Vaas, smiling again. "Why? Because Satan was once an angel, too, to God. Not Jesus. Before he fell, he only changed because others saw him as the assassin who murdered Jesus Christ. But, he wasn't, yet he was forever framed by that sake. God forgave Satan, but his followers never did. It's also another religiously theoretical idea of why we are all born sinners: because we don't forgive the innocent." Mickey brushed her knuckles against his jawline. "Would you believe me if I said you're not a bad person?"

"Hmm." Vaas hummed playfully, giving Mickey a genuine smile. "If you promise me that you aren't one of those religious fuckers."

"Oh, no!" Mickey scoffed to that. "Never! God is mere spiritual energy, and that's all. My only God are those who raised me. Not an imaginary character." Mickey then made a disgusted face. "Ew. I spoke religion through my thoughts. I feel tainted." But, she laughed it off. "Ah, but it's what father always told me..."

"Your father sounds like an outstanding role model, for a drunk." Vaas couldn't help but say. "What the fuck were his ideals?"

"He was a drunk, yes, but never did he once believe in hurting me in a way to make me grow up wrecked. He taught me something called courage. He never smacked me in the face, because he believed that was the real harm into a child's mentality. He would whip me, yes, but somehow, the beatings taught me how to become who I am. I was a born military brat, as he always called me, but in a good way. My personality would throw off anyone who would think otherwise. I am perfected through dark and hard times, still laughing in the most giddiest of ways, and learning more about flying high."

"Flying?" Vaas stood up from the sand, helping Mickey up to her feet. "You speak utter nonsense sometimes, girl. I wonder what goes through your head?" Vaas grabbed Mickey's head with both his hands, ruffling her mess of red hair playfully. "You're a cat."

"No way!" Mickey scoffed again. "Cats represent independence, yes, but they are not entirely free. Now, _falcons_ are up my alley. They represent freedom, victory, and intelligence. Their mere appearance gives off an ooze of courage to others that want that same symbolism. Plus, they are the key to astral dreams in the sky. I've always wanted to fly into a sunset. I wish I could touch a star, too..."

"Heh." Vaas couldn't help but chuckle. "Strange. I've always found you to be like a timid bunny."

Then, she clapped her hands together again, and asked Vaas a fun question, "What would you represent yourself as, in animalistic form?"

"I'm a fucking _wolf_." Vaas randomly chose, taking Mickey back. She thought that Vaas would have surely chosen _lion_ or _bear_. "Wolves are born-hunters and fighters, that search for truth and challenge. They gain and lose loved ones everyday by the enemies, but they remain strong, and lead their packs onward to whatever trail is under their paws. They represent spirit, courage, and strength. They fight until they can fight no more... I think that's what _Balto_ was like."

Mickey's good eye sparkled to Vaas' words. Her smile grew wider. "Nothing discourages you, Vaas."

"And you either." He kissed her cheek. "_Conejito_."

Mickey had no clue what that meant, but she just patted the top of Vaas' head with a smile, dumbfounded, giving a stupid laugh of confusion.

Vaas took Mickey's hand into his hand kissed her palm.

Mickey's lips pressed together firmly, blushing deeply to Vaas' genuine kiss on her hand. But, she did not pull back. Instead, Mickey closed the gap between them, and kissed Vaas fully on the lips. Immediately, she could feel Vaas' arms snake around her small waist, massaging his hands over her lower back. She could feel his hands studying the texture of her tank top, and he clicked his tongue against her lips.

"Why did you have to wear this top?" Vaas asked, lightly tugging at the hem of Mickey's tank top.

The top Mickey wore was something commonly worn by her. It was a white tank top, with the symbol of the National British Flag on the front and back. Something that was normal to see on her, because it was her second favorite top. Vaas has seen her wear it plenty of times in the past and never reacted much on it. But, for some strange reason now, he was becoming heated up to just see her in it.

"It's just the top I've been wearing for ages, Vaas. You've seen me wear it." Mickey reminded him.

"I know... and I've secretly pleasured myself to seeing you wear it in the past." He admitted boldly, making Mickey's jaw drop to his honesty. "I'm joking."

"No, you're not! You're _lying_!" Mickey shouted out, trying to get out of Vaas' grasp.

"Where are you going, little rabbit?" Vaas held onto her, whispering in her ear rashly. "It's cold out there. I'll warm you up."

"It's the only reason why I'm wearing this tank top... It feels like one-million degrees out here!" Mickey put both her hands on Vaas' cheeks. "Let me go, wolf."

"Never." Vaas growled against her neck, before he licked a wet stripe up from her collarbone to her jaw.

Mickey was ready to fall over, feeling delirious under his spell.

Vaas laid Mickey down onto the sand ground on her back, and continued ravishing on her neck, collarbone and shoulders. He was literally like a wolf, licking and nipping at her skin, as if he were testing waters, to check if his latest victim were still breathing or not, trying to find a pulse. He started kissing her hard on her lips, letting his tongue sneak in to lick at every square inch of the inside of her mouth, and even scraped his teeth against her bottom lip, hearing her make an unexpected moan and a surprised squeak.

He lifted his upper body up to look down at Mickey's face. Her face was flushed, and her lips were red and swollen from being kissed so much.

"_Conejito_." Vaas smirked down at her, and kissed her on the lips once again.

He felt her nervous arms wrap around his broad shoulders, and her good eye squeeze shut. He moved his large hands to her torso's sides, massaging his hands over her frail sides to relax her from being so uptight. Mickey breathed out heavily from her mouth, with her sweet breath of mixed herbs brushing against his face. She sounded as if she were trying to relax, but, she couldn't do so right away.

Whenever she opened up her eye to look at Vaas, she would blush more to see him so close to her. She still was not quite use to Vaas being her's yet, just because he was completely opposite from her.

Vaas was everything he described as a wolf. Looking for fight, seeking truth, wanting to lead, and never backing down.

But when she looked at her overall personality to his, Mickey was more timid, ditzy, happy-go-lucky, and always smiling to everything. But, still fighting against the wolves with so much left in her. Perhaps she _was _more content as a timid bunny, than as a fighter-falcon?

"Teehee!" Mickey grinned widely. "If I'm like a bunny, then I desire to be a snow rabbit!"

Vaas chuckled to that idea. "Desire to, huh?" He smirks, wrapping his hand around the bend of her knee to hook her leg around his waist. "Then it shall be." He lifted her hips on his lap, making her show a look of shock, that just made him grin more. "Outside is nice today. You lied about it being one-million degrees, you naughty minx."

"N-No, I didn't!" Mickey defended herself, bashfully stuttering. "It was hot in the afternoon, and I thought of just wearing this top-!"

She was immediately silenced by the rough push of Vaas' grinding his hips against her's. Their clothes were not off, but he wanted to tease her majorly, with his blood running hot, and his ravish behavior rising. The thrust against her hips made her squeak out in a startled manner. Mickey looked up at Vaas with a hazy vision, unsure of whatever else to say, without riveting his blood some more. But, her flushed face was all there was to make him continue.

He hooked her second leg around his waist, while still thrusting and grinding right up against her, making her mumble or moan in confused excitement. He could feel the same emotions, with the inside of his stomach swirling with butterflies, and his hand sneaking down to the underside of her thigh. He moved his hand down to her shorts, massaging his palm over her middle to find the zipper to her short-jeans...

"Wait." Mickey immediately stopped Vaas from unzipping her shorts.

"... Huh?" Vaas fluttered open his eyes, long after realizing that his hand was stopped by her prosthetic hand.

"W-We're... outside." Mickey stuttered, trying to fixate her mind back into focus.

"So?" Vaas chuckled, leaning down to press his lips on her's again. "I won't let anyone stop us."

"B-But-" Mickey didn't know what else to say to stop Vaas. "I've sand in my hair..." She patted the top of her head, shifting her eyes away from Vaas' eyes.

"You're so timid at this moment." Vaas grinned down at her face. "You need to lighten up."

Mickey made a frown, tilting her head to the side. "Don't tell me that."

"Well, then." Vaas jumped up to his feet, and spooned Mickey up in his arms, surprising her. "Let's go somewhere private then."

"Oh, goodie!" Mickey sighed in relief, feeling cradled in Vaas' arms. "Where will you take me, my dark angel? To the Nevermore Lands of Darkness?"

Vaas smirked to that small nickname. "To the darkness, encumbered by pure agony and purgatory, my gothic love. Amidst the turmoil of black and red streaks above a sky, and down into the Earth of lava you humans refer to as Hell."

[Just A Few Hours Of Your Time]

The two had went back to Mickey's shack, where Vaas wanted to claim her for himself again. It wasn't the first time, but, he felt desired to do so.

"V-Vaas, I-" Mickey stuttered nervously, and quietly, as she felt Vaas' hand brush against the side of her face.

"Shhh. It's okay. It's okay..." Vaas brushed his lips against Mickey's, as warm comfort, before he slowly pushed himself into her.

Mickey's eyes widened, and her eyes grew wide with teeth clenching tightly together. She didn't know what to usually think, when Vaas and her became intimate. Yes, they have begun to have sex often, but whenever she saw his face above her's, and his arms wrapped around her back, she couldn't help but feel like she was still vulnerable underneath of him. Her face still blushed to the idea of them being that close to him.

"Ahh..." Vaas breathed out, when he was fully settled into her, nipping at Mickey's small shoulder. "Mickey."

Mickey was about to say something, when she felt Vaas embrace her tightly in his muscular arms, and thrust faster into her. He pecked wet kisses on the side of her neck multiple times, sucking at her skin desperately, and grunting to the bites he felt on his shoulder from Mickey's eager-ridden teeth.

Mickey's eye was closed, just letting the sensations of intense pleasure melt her in the heat for the time being. Her arms were trapped between their bodies, pressing against each others chests. She was about to dig her nails into Vaas' naked chest, when she remembered her prosthetic arm. She stopped that hand from moving, and just used her other, real hand to move up and caress Vaas' face.

She studied Vaas' face. His eyes were closed, and his mouth was slightly parted, panting out every time he made a powerful thrust into her. They were not on the cot, but, on a worn-out couch full of patches that Mickey saved for herself to relax on a year ago. She had no clue that her couch would be also used for these moments as well.

Vaas' movements were becoming faster, and Mickey kept her real hand over the side of his face, while she just put her prosthetic hand over her forehead, unable to stop watching Vaas' lust-filled expressions play out.

He opened his eyes long enough to look down at Mickey's. He leaned in and kissed her hard on her lips, lifting her hips up slightly to lean in more to say something into her ear.

"_Conejito_. Little bunny." He flicked his tongue at the shell of her ear.

Mickey made a surprised gasp, finally understanding. Another thrust, and she made a startled squeak, pleasing to Vaas' ears. Mickey wrapped her arms around Vaas' shoulders tightly, lifting her upper body up slightly, to close her eye, and bite down at the side of his neck. Just how a victimized rabbit would react, if it were trapped right underneath of a hungered wolf.

Vaas smiled happily to the feeling of Mickey's teeth on his neck. "Va... as..." Mickey heard herself draw out the long moan, head tilted back through the throes of intense pleasure, underneath of a sturdy body.

"You sound so fucking hot, saying my name..." Vaas licked his lips in concentration, moving his hands down to Mickey's hips to hold her, but did not want to hold her too hard around the hips. The pounding in a tight space was becoming deliciously uncontrollable, though, and he couldn't help but hear Mickey make a squeak, and a small mewl, to the hard movements going into her body. "Say it again, Mickey. Say my name..." He said in a gruff, panting against her throat that he wetted with more kisses and licks.

"... V-Vaas... so close..." Mickey couldn't help but pant out hard, in a high cry, that sounded as if she were begging. Her back arched to another thrust that hit that sweet spot hidden inside of herself.

With that, Vaas then took Mickey's wrists into both his hands, and held them both up over her head, pressed against the arm of the couch her head was resting on. He now looked right down at her watery eye, seeing that Mickey looked up at him in confusion, still panting hard.

Vaas' eyes were extremely dark, from how Mickey saw them when she glanced up at him. She saw that those light, pale green eyes were now a darkened, shiny green, full of lust, and hints of something that read something unknown, that he was long yearning for, in them.

He watched Mickey's face, as he delivered three powerful thrusts into her for the last time. He saw her eyebrows furrow, and her good eye shut tightly, follow by her teeth clutching together, when she finally came.

Her own face, just to see what she looked like when she hit that climax, was everything that Vaas wanted to see, before he came into her hard, in a silent, but intense, violent quiver of his body exposing deep, agonizing pleasure he emptied out of himself, into her.

Vaas let go of her wrists, and wrapped his arms around her back, pulling her close to his chest, as he laid down on her's. Their chests touched, with Vaas pecking butterfly kisses all over her face.

Mickey giggled to herself when Vaas did that, just smiling when he made a small whine to her little voice laughing up at him.

"I love you." Vaas panted lightly, while slowly pulling himself out of her tight space, looking Mickey straight in the eye. He swooped down to nuzzle his head against her still-shirt-covered chest, curling his body around her's. Mickey wrapped her arms around Vaas' back, with her real hand over the back of his head to brush her fingers through the shorts strands of his mohawk.

"Like a love song." Mickey added in with a bashful laugh, hearing Vaas snort, sensing a smirk played on his face. "I can't breathe."

"Nooo. Don't go away." Vaas whined again, squeezing his hands over the small of her back. "Just stay."

He complied though, by moving to lay on his side, giving her space to also turn over to her side. While Mickey panted out lightly to herself for oxygen, Vaas just licked and nipped at the side of her neck, like a wolf mending to his tired mate. The side of her neck was his favorite spot to leave darkened hickies and invisible kisses on.

"I love you, too." Mickey smiled to herself, petting the back of Vaas' head. "More, though."

"Nah." He disagreed, while Mickey reached over to the floor below the couch to find her brown shorts. He still had his dark, camouflage pants on still, through their entire, intimate moment. His muscle shirt was off, though, exposing his toned, unmarked chest and stomach.

Once Mickey hiked on her shorts, she looked back to Vaas, smiling genuinely. "I love you _more_, you wolf."

"And I you _most_, _conejito_." Vaas pulled her down to embrace her once more. "Oh, wait a fucking second." Vaas just realized something, "It was Business Time."

Mickey slapped her hand over her face, unable to stop her uncontrollable, breathless laughter.

_**"Rabbit, my claws are down now, so, don't be afraid. I could keep you warm, as long as you can just try to be brave. Yes, I know I'm a wolf, and I've been know to bite. But, the rest of my pack, I have left them behind. And, my teeth may be sharp, and, I've been raised to kill, but, the thought of fresh meat... It is making me ill! So, I'm telling you, that you'll be safe with... me!" **_**(- Young Heretics' "I Know I'm A Wolf").**

**Rated _M_ for mature, mature, _mature, MATURE_! If you can't handle the heat, get out of the kitchen! *Runs off like a crazy person!***

**More to come, in the next chapter!**


	20. Due For A Trim

"Checkmate." Dynamite taps down the chess piece onto the board.

"Wh-What the fuck?!" Vaas screamed, ready to flip the table. "_Where_?" He hissed.

Dynamite pointed out the pole chess piece to Vaas, follow by showing him his king. Vaas grew frustrated, realizing that he just lost a chess game. He would have flipped the table, but it was bolted down into the floor, so that he couldn't. He just slammed both his fists down onto the worktable surface, and demanded for a rematch, which Dynamite gladly obliged for.

Since Dynamite's face was torn up, he had also got that mended. He was like the walking horror tale of the Carved Woman of Japan, though. The opened slices were healed and shut, but he was left with hideous scars running from his lip corners, up to his cheekbones. It looked like a wicked smile carved into his face, even if Dynamite never smiled as much as he use to.

"How goes life for you, Vaas?" Dynamite asked Vaas, while he took back his white chess pieces to rearrange them. "Are you and Mickey fine?"

"What the fuck do you care, boy genius?" Vaas said in a gruff, but knew how his words didn't phase the youngster.

"Just a little curious." Dynamite shrugged. "I wonder about you two a lot. I'll admit it." He heard Vaas make a small scoff to himself. "Oh, don't give me that." Dynamite glanced up at Vaas. "When was the last time anyone had asked about you and Mickey's love-life? I can't remember the last time."

"Maybe because you're not part of it?" Vaas says, making his move first on the chess board. He moved a pawn. He glanced up at Dynamite, unable to help but examine the new, large scars on his face with his eyes.

"Oh, please. If I'm a pirate lord, then I've every right to get into your business." Dynamite moved a pawn piece forward. "Plus, if I don't ask, Hoyt won't." He rested his weight on his hand, that balanced on the edge of the table. "He cares less about what you want, Vaas, remember? The only thing he seriously cares for is Mickey... and his business. Not like the other pirates seriously matter to him, either, but, I can see that."

Vaas hums thoughtfully to himself, moving a horse forward. "What does it matter to you?"

"Because I am nosy." Dynamite answers, hearing Vaas chuckle. "I may be noble, but there's no harm into being pushy." After a moment of careful calculating, Dynamite moved another pawn. "If I don't ask, then the answer will always be no. Correct?"

"Always." Vaas obliged him, moving another chess piece. "I feel like we're Bella and Edward playing fucking chess..."

Dynamite scoffs to that. "Oh, please. Unlike Edward and Bella, I could beat both of them with calculation and actual worth. All it seriously needs is great intuition and a strong, focused mind." Dynamite moved a horse pawn. "Follow by that thought, it also requires a face that can _actually_ show some _emotions_. Both of them are like faceless pigeons."

"You're talking too much again." Vaas chuckled to himself, knocking down Dynamite's pole pawn.

"There's never enough." Dynamite clicked his tongue, seeing his pawn fall. "Oh, and by-the-by, I head you got messages back from the viewers of your little show?"

"Oh, right." Vaas mumbles, waiting for Dynamite to make his move.

"Oh, is that another topic as well?" Dynamite raised his eyebrow. "You might as well go, before Mister Mintz-Plaase passes on!"

"Hey, Dynamite!" Jackal came barging into the workshop, through the steel door. "How's life, boy genius-"

Before Jackal could finish that thoughtful greet, Vaas shoved him aside and went bolting down the path towards the beach, in search of Mickey.

"Hey, _asshole_!" Jackal screamed at Vaas' direction. "Watch where the _fuck_ you run!"

Dynamite looked down at the chess board. "Hey! I think I won again!" He clapped his hands together.

[The Haircut of Doom]

"Barbering is something that is overall simple to do, for one with a calculated mind in layers. The trick is to not let emotions overwhelm you." Lucipher says, as he snipped at the red locks of Mickey's long hair with a pair of red-handle scissors. "I think you'll find it quite lovely, once it's said and done."

Mickey was not at the beach. But, instead, she was at the large building of Hoyt's office. When she mentioned to Hoyt earlier about being due to a trim, Hoyt knew Lucipher could be much more of a barber, than he or anyone else could be. Hoyt already knew about Lucipher's past obsessions of barbering to his victims, before they died. Lucipher always wanted his most beautiful rejects to die a gorgeous death, and he was seriously raised for that position.

"How short did you want your hair, _mama_?" Lucipher asked Mickey, trimming off the ends of her locks.

"Just a tad over my shoulders, may you? I also wanted it to have choppy layers." Mickey described, hearing Lucipher make an understanding, "m-hm."

Both the pirates were sitting in a second room, downstairs under Hoyt's office. It was empty, with nothing but mirror walls and a bay window shining light into the hollowed area. A lone chair, that Mickey sat in, facing a mirror wall, while Lucipher stood behind her, with a small cart of tools beside him, that he used to trim hair. Most of the tools on the cart were cleaned, torturing devices, that he was obviously not going to use on her.

Lucipher was not the one to always be going to for haircuts. No one in the right mind would ask him, because they were afraid he would use a razor and slice their throats while they were distracted. But, for Mickey, and his other pirate lords, he would make an exception to that. There were other, female barbers on the island, but none had seriously come down to liking Mickey, as much as to give her a proper trim. They hated her, and they feared her. Mostly because she was a big, likeable, exception to other pirates that looked to her as their pirate lord.

Lucipher was well-known to have given trims to his victims, before they were slaughtered. A strange fascination of making them beautiful before they died, because Lucipher believed that every dead person should look stunning, before they stand before their God.

"I'm going to use the barber knife now, for the choppy layers. Yes?" Lucipher said to Mickey, setting down the scissors to go for his pocket, and pull out a barber knife.

"I trust you, Lucipher." Mickey smiled, before she felt Lucipher's fingers run through her layers to gather up strands of hair, and started slicing through carefully.

Lucipher was humming a small tune to himself, while he used a comb to brush through Mickey's hair. "Don't fall asleep." He quickly reminded Mickey, noticing that she was nodding off to the comb carefully brushing through her hair. "I often find my victims to nod off as well, when I brush their hairs with a comb. It's a delightful comfort, I know, but you don't want to drop your head, and have me ruin the process, no?"

Mickey just mumbled something, wanting to sleep, but knew that Lucipher was correct.

"Let's talk!" Lucipher chippered with a wide grin on his face. "We should party later!"

"Oh, no." Mickey shook her head lightly. "I don't have time for parties."

"Aw, but, _mama_..." Lucipher pressed his lips together firmly, making a pouty face. "... You never have time for parties."

"I just don't like all the lights in a party. People getting close to me. The smell of drinks and smoke..." Mickey cringed to the mere thought of a party. "Ek!"

"We should have a _Life-Is-A-Party_ party then!" Lucipher cackled loudly, seeing Mickey also smile. "We can torment the rejects slowly, while they're chained up to walls, and just use their insides to make cupcakes later on! It'll be like a real-life Cupcakes tale from Pinky Pie's homicidal adventures!"

_Chop. Chop. Chop._

"I believe I am finished." Lucipher stopped his trimming, putting down his knife and comb. "Take a look!" He throws off the blanket around Mickey's front torso.

Mickey took a good look at herself in the mirror wall. It was just as she wanted. Her long locks were gone, and now she looked at herself with a medium haircut. Her new hair length was shorter, but not completely. It was just hovering a tad-bit over her shoulders. The rest of her layers were given a proper chopping-effect, giving it the "oomf" it needed to make it more full. Her bright, Scottish red hair certainly beamed more with life and amply color. Even her bangs were trimmed and chopped the exact way she wanted them. They were not properly pushed to the side as she wanted them to be for a while.

"The source!" Lucipher gathered up the trimmed, red locks off the floor and threw them up like confetti. "Hooray!"

"Who is that?" A familiar, young voice peeked into the empty room. "Mickey! Your hair!" It was Ronnie, now shocked at Mickey's new haircut.

"Isn't she fabulous?" Lucipher smiled widely at Ronnie.

Ronnie looked at Mickey's new, shortened haircut for a moment, until he grinned, and couldn't help but say, "Aye, giiiiirl. It's been, like, forever...!"

Mickey barked out laughing. "Oh, giiiiirl. _This_ haircut, with _these_ boots?" All three looked down at Mickey's mudded shoes.

Lucipher gasps dramatically. "Oh, no, you didn't!" He waved an index finger in the air. "Oh, I _know_ you didn't!"

"What the fuck is going on in here?" Hoyt shouted in the empty room, with his voice echoing through the walls. "Is this some sort of communication with you three?!"

"_Giiiiiirl_!" Lucipher lastly cooed out, before grabbing Ronnie by his wrist, and both went running out of the room, laughing maniacally.

Hoyt sighed heavily. "Anyhow," He approached Mickey, putting a hand over the top of her head. "You look perfect! But, did you have to get these layers chopped?" He asked, plucking lightly at some of her newly trimmed strands.

Mickey mimicked his earlier sigh. "Yes, I did, _d__ad_."

"Walk with me." Hoyt gestured his hand to Mickey. The two walked out of the empty room and went towards the large staircase. "I believe I've got some new imported fuckers coming into play." Hoyt's hand dragged along the metal rail of the staircase.

"What do you mean?" Mickey asked, pacing beside him. "Are you going to get something new for your building?"

"No!" Hoyt barked out laughing. "Take a gander at what I mean, hon."

Arriving to Hoyt's large office, he and Mickey walked to the large windows just behind his desk. There, he pointed out something gray in the sky. Mickey squinted hard to take a good look at what was out there.

In the sky, there was a small plane, flying in random directions just above the island. It seemed to have been a plane for the prominent tourists to use for skydiving adventures. As the plane view, it seemed to have been dropping off the tourists randomly. From Mickey's spot, the people jumping out of the plane looked like tiny, pencil dots. Luckily, the plane was not close enough to bombard the pirates with the tourists, that could have started scrambling for their lives if they saw the guns and slaves.

Once the plane dropped off the last skydiver, it flew closer to the camp, and allowed two last skydivers to jump out with parachutes.

"Oh! He did that on purpose, that ditzy pilot!" Mickey said, tapping her fingertip on the window pane.

"Good." Hoyt said, with a wicked smile on his face. "I'm going to call on the pirates below to go after the two. Next," Hoyt turned to his desk and went for a walkie-talkie sitting on the surface of his desk. "I'll call one of Vaas' lackeys to tell him about the others. We're going to have a wonderful time with these new guests, I wager!"

[The Vaas' Show Finale]

The camera snapped on, filming Vaas, sitting in front of the recording camera. He seemed concentrated on something, as he held a handful of sand in his right-hand, while combing his fingertips through the surface of it softly with his other hand. He sat underneath of a large shadow of a leaning tree, that was sprouting for ages over a small hill on the side of the beach sand.

"Just when I thought I lost complete faith in society..." He glanced up at the camcorder. "Something beautiful, like this, comes along. The human spirit is... full of mystery." He spoke quietly, still combing his fingers through the handful of sand. He then stopped, tossing the sand at the camcorder's direction. "You guys voted for the life of Chris, and... I'm going to keep my word."

On that note, Vaas immediately sprung up back to his feet, and turned around fully to look down at the sand behind him.

On camera, Christopher's head above the sand was revealed. His face was covered on black dirt, ash, and bruises. His eyes were closed, and he looked as if he were sleeping soundly in the sand, that still engulfed his body.

"Chris!" Vaas stepped over to the side of Christopher' immobile head. "These fuckers... they want you to live! Which means," He sat himself down next to Christopher. "You are going to be here for another two, or three, weeks, amigo!"

Vaas' voice did not seem to get through to Christopher' ears. He was still not moving.

Vaas looked at the camcorder, smiling and chuckling. "He did the same joke about three times already! I don't think it's funny anymore, Chris, so," He pushed his fingertips at the side of Christopher' head roughly, trying to wake up the actor. "Wake the fuck up. Say something nice to the people around the world, on the Internet." He grabbed a small handful of sand in his hand and sprinkled it down onto the top of Christopher' unmoving head. "Chris?" Vaas said his name twice, hearing nothing back. Not even a cough.

The idea finally got into Vaas' mind, when he noticed Christopher wasn't responding.

"Chris!" Vaas moved closer to Christopher' head, pressing two fingertips down onto the side of Chris' partially exposed neck. He felt no pulse. "Chris, wake the fuck up! Hey! Chris!" Vaas didn't know what else to do to wake up Christopher, now that he's come to realize that he wasn't moving or speaking. He resorted to grabbing Christopher' face and giving him CPR, with his mouth over his, blowing air into his forced-opened mouth as much as he could. "Chris, wake the fuck up!" Vaas shouted, leaning back to see if his CPR did anything. "Chris, please, wake the fuck up!" He went back to blowing air into Christopher' cold mouth once more, until he finally gave up.

Christopher was dead. Vaas was stunned. Utterly mortified by this occurrence.

He didn't do much of anything else, but still hold Christopher's dead head in his hands, and just press his forehead against Christopher's temple.

He sat like that for a good moment of his own time, until the sound of a pirate lackey came charging into screen.

"Vaas! Vaas!" The pirate jogged towards Vaas.

"Shut the fuck up!" Vaas screamed, lifting his head up slightly to look at the pirate lackey.

The lackey decided to just tell him. "Six skydivers just landed on this island!"

Vaas was much more shocked now. "... Really?" A wide grin spread across his face. "On _this _fucking island?"

"Yes, _really_!" The lackey went running off without Vaas, shouting something at the other pirates that were waiting for him.

"Did you hear that, Chris?!" Vaas spoke to Christopher's face, chuckling softly to himself. He then looked back to the camera. "Why the _fuck _do you people here _coming _for? I mean, you _know_ I'm fucking here!" He springs up to his feet and follows the lackey. "Let's play with these fucks!"

A brief moment later of leaving Chris' dead body in the sand still, Vaas came back into screen, now with a shovel in his hand.

"I- uh... I _forgot_ to clean up my mess!" Vaas knelt down to the side of Chris' head. "Little boys and girls, always remember to clean your room! And, listen to your parents!" He smiled, before he started digging up shovelful of sand from his side, to start burying Christopher's head. "Alright! Sorry, Chris!" Vaas says as he continued burying Christopher up in a sand grave. "This is not going to take too long! Almost done, amigo!"

Christopher's head was piled underneath of sand, now barely visible into the camera lens.

"And, last one!" Vaas dumped the last shovelful of sand on the pile of sand, now fully burying Christopher's face from recognition. Vaas crouched down once more, to look at the camera. "I don't think anybody's going to find him now!" He gave a sinister smile to the camcorder, with his eyebrows raised.

He lastly waved, and blew a kiss, to the camera, before running off screen.

**We will meet a new set of faces, that should sound awfully familiar to you.**

**Why did I want Mickey to have her hair shorter? To be honest, I _love_ _it_ when girls have short hair. Brings out more of their personality and eyes, that I always want to know more about. Long hair is like a curtain on their faces. It's too much for me, I'll admit. **

**In the next chapter...**


	21. Meet Joanie Jets

"Who the fuck are you?!" The man with spiky, wavy brunette hair screamed at Vaas, as he was hauled away by pirates, along with his brother. "Let us fucking go! What the fuck did we do to you?!" He sounded absolutely content into screaming out his rage, directing it all at Vaas.

As Hoyt ordered out to Vaas and his pirates, he successfully took on the two men that skydived down into the camp lair, easily taking them down with the element of surprise. Rounding these brothers up, Vaas was also radioed in by his other crew members from across the island that they had also successfully apprehended the other skydivers that landed.

"He's worthy, I would wager." Jackal said to Vaas, standing next to the mohawk man, as they watched the screaming brunette and his brother get thrown into the trunk of a large, armed vehicle. "I think he's going to be your favorite, Vaas. His brother? Well, there's nowhere for him now... I wouldn't even keep him."

Vaas made a sounding smirk. "He's actually got spunk. I like that. Not everyday you find a fighter on one guy."

Jackal yawned to himself, scratching the back of his neck. "How about the other fucks? How are they holding up?"

Vaas made a hum. "They're-"

"Hey! Vaas!" A pirate from the driver's side of the armed vehicle screamed out. "Are we good to go?!"

"Yes, yes! Just drive!" Vaas hollered at the pirate, waving him off.

The screaming brunette from earlier was named Jason Brody, and his brother, Grant Brody. They put up a great fight when the pirates surprised them, but, they were easily taken out with the number of pirates being able to overpower the brothers.

[Meeting The Brody's]

"You think you're crazy, huh?" Vaas asked Jason, in a sinister tone.

Jason and Grant were brought back to their camp, caged up in a strong and sturdy bamboo cage, with their wrists tied up above their heads on the cage bars, and their backs against the bars as well. Their mouths were trapped shut with cloths tied around their heads, around their lips, preventing them from talking or yelling.

After showing a montage of his day on the island of Rook from the cellphone Jason used to record earlier events of having so much fun and hanging out with his friends, Vaas was merely ready to shove it in his face, just wanting to show him how his life was going to be torn apart.

"Jumping out of airplanes. Flying, like birds?" Vaas chuckled, bringing back the cellphone to his attention. "That _is _crazy." Vaas looked down at the bright screen of the phone. He then glanced up at Grant, and said, "I like this phone." He then looked at Jason, lifting the phone up slightly with his hand. "This is a nice, fucking phone."

After Vaas put the cellphone away in his back pocket, he stood up from crouching, and took out two pieces of paper from his other pocket.

"So..." He paces a few steps to his side. "Who do we have here? We have Grant." He shifted his eyes to the brother. And then, dramatically, points over to Jason. "And, Jason."

While Vaas was in the mood of scaring their latest catches, Hoyt was speaking to Mickey on the other side of the shack, that Vaas was sitting just in front of.

"Military brats, that's who they are." Hoyt scoffed to himself, taking a drag from his cigar. "Two brothers, that both were in the army. Of course, they couldn't possibly have so much training, by how unscaved they look in their pretty faces." Hoyt chuckled to himself.

Mickey heard Hoyt, and made an unsure look. "Military brats? Brothers? That sounds like _deja vu_..." She laughed silently to herself, in an unsure manner.

"Ah, don't let it get to you, dear." Hoyt pats her on the shoulder, while dropping the rest of his cigar onto the ground, crushing it with his leather-clad foot. "They'll be out of your hair soon enough, so, don't think back too hard on things."

"Okay." Mickey rubbed her hands together. "Okay..."

"Now, I'm going to see to Vaas. That fucker is running his mouth again." Hoyt lastly said, sighing heavily and rolling his eyes to the sound of Vaas starting to raise his voice in an angry, screaming manner, at the hostages. He departed off to the side of the shack, to walk around the building to see to Vaas.

Rounding the shack, Hoyt found Vaas halting on his constant screaming, and now crouching next to Jason's side.

"It's okay!" Vaas laughed, dusting his hands off. "I'm going to chill, because we're going to have a lot of fun! Because you," He points at Jason. "_Moi_." He points at himself. Then he turned slightly to point at Grant, whistling playfully. "And, your tough-guy brother... we're going to have a lot of fun-!"

"Vaas!" Hoyt appeared from behind Vaas, out of the gathering fog. "Vaas! Stop scaring the hostages! I need you to take care of the rejects!"

Once Hoyt disappeared into the fog once more, Vaas stood back up from crouching, still looking down at the two, captive brothers. "I just hope you two pieces of _fucks _are a lot more enjoyable to have. Ta-ta!" He waved good-bye to the brothers, adding in a "bye-bye" to his farewell. Before he departed, he couldn't help but scare a pirate standing nearby with a surprising "hiss!" sound, follow by a stomp of his foot startling him.

"He looks so cute." A female pirate could help but say, standing at the side of the shack, with Mickey.

The two couldn't help but peek over and check out the captive brothers.

"I want the one in the red t-shirt!" She whispered to Mickey, pointing out Grant. "He looks so cute!"

"Oh, you scatter-brained girl." Mickey rolled her eyes.

"Oh, you," The little girl mimicked Mickey's British accent in a playful mockery. "I know you're checking out the younger one there." She giggled, flickering her finger at Jason's direction.

"I'm not." Mickey answered, in all honesty. "I just think he's got awesome hair."

Both the girls studied Jason's spiky, wavy hair for a long moment.

"How does it do that?" Mickey asked.

"... I don't know..." The other girl sounded like she was confused as well.

The female pirate was a new, fresh-faced British killer on the island, that tagged along with a group of other new pirates on a ship that arrived to Rook Island just one week ago. Her real name was Joanie Jets, literally. There seemed to have been no use of a nickname for her, because of how odd her name sounded.

She was a good shooter, considering her past as a bank robber. She had medium-length, messy, dark brunette hair, and big, pale, green eyes. She was also abundantly young - about only _thirteen_. Not suited for an island's taste of pirates, but, she was more suitable to be working alongside with Mickey. She was only two inches shorter to Mickey's height, so, that originally meant that Joanie was five-two-feet.

Mickey and Joanie left the area, strolling together down a path to where the Pit was. The only place where the rejects would be. And Vaas.

"What are rejects?" Joanie asked Mickey, staying closer to her side, still afraid of the other pirate men she found foreign.

"Just people that are found unsuited for sale, for Hoyt's business. We just pluck them out of the sales boards of our livestock, and just kill them." Mickey explained, fluent with the same, old idea of Hoyt's on how to get rid of extra, useless weight on his business. "It's all normal, though. Just kill them, toss them in the Pit, and move on. Okay?"

"Yeah!" Joanie smiled widely, looking at Mickey, with her green eyes sparkling. "Sounds easy!"

Arriving to the Pit, the two girls could hear the loud voice of Vaas' talking down to three rejects on the stage. The three were on their knees, hands tied behind their backs, and unwillingly awaiting for their doom from the pirate lord man.

Vaas' voice was booming, as if he were put in front of a switched-on microphone in an empty auditorium, and his voice was booming and echoing throughout the hollowed walls. Even though he was speaking loud, Vaas found it to actually be completely normal for himself to speak in such manner.

Joanie couldn't help but make a small giggle to herself.

"What is it?" Mickey asked Joanie, walking over a long, wood-bamboo bridge over the Pit with her.

"Well, it's just that..." Joanie made a silly look of expression up to Mickey. "Is he this loud, when you two... uh..."

The two laughed together, like two school girls that just heard a great gossip about the lead cheerleader being found in the restroom with the football captain.

"Mickey!" Vaas' voice shouted Mickey's name from the stage. "Come here, Mickey-Chicky." He walked off the stage with his arms opened, after being done with killing the three rejects. "Aw, my little chica." Vaas coos, once his arms were wrapped around Mickey's back, and hugging her close to his chest. "Did you see our new friends?"

"Yes." Mickey quietly responded, thinking back to the brothers again. "... Poor sods."

"Don't say that. They're on the island for a reason." Vaas pulled back slightly to look down at Mickey. "It'll be said and done, once we've got the ransom money from their cruddy parents, and their California place." Vaas wrapped his arm around Mickey's shoulders and started walking with her.

"Come along, Joanie!" Mickey looked over her shoulder at the petite girl.

Joanie immediately went to Mickey's side, having an uncomfortable feeling from the other pirates staring at her.

Vaas noticed short-Joanie finally, giving the youngster an up-down with his eyes, and raised his eyebrow at Mickey. "She new? I haven't see her in my life."

"Yes, she is new." Mickey nodded. She then pointed at herself, declaring, "_I _picked her out from the group of newbies wanting to join last week." Mickey looked back to Joanie, and gave her an assuring smile. "Ignore the rest of the pirates. They look tough, but, you're _tougher_. I saw that, when you were fighting with the other men on that ship you were escorted from." She reminded Joanie, giving her a boost of confidence.

Joanie made a wide grin on her face.

She was obviously only comfortable being around Mickey, since Mickey had seemed to have been the only other woman on the island. Joanie saw the other women in the camp, but they were not pirates. Most of them were prostitutes, and that was about it. Mickey told her to stay away from them, because they obviously hated the rare, pirate women that could join with the pirate lords' crews. Plus, she didn't want Joanie to get into a fight with any of the hoes, because of the idea of Joanie getting a disease from them was frightening.

"Joanie Jets..." Vaas repeated the new girl's name. "... Your name sounds more like an euphemism to _Joan Jett and The Blackhearts_."

"What!" Joanie became flustered, looking up at Vaas, who was extremely tall, compared to her shorter height. "Mickey... He's hurting my feelings." She gave big, puppy-dog eyes to Mickey, lips pressed together to make a pouty look, mentally asking for help on what to say as a comeback.

Mickey unfolded Vaas' arm around her own shoulders, and wrapped her real arm around Joanie's shoulders, pulling the young girl close to her side.

Vaas was now becoming the whiny pirate, seeing that Joanie was having more motherly-attention from Mickey.

"You should tell Vaas how you feel about his haircut." Mickey whispered to Joanie in a rash tone, hearing Joanie make a cynical chuckle to herself for an idea.

Before Joanie could make a comeback, her arm was suddenly grabbed roughly by a pirate man.

"Hey! A kid!" The pirate shouted, eyeing Joanie with a sleazy grin on his face. "I hadn't seen a kid, since the last time I met that ten-year-old in Mexico..."

"Ahh!" Joanie reacted by her own intuition, and punched the pirate man square in the nose, hard, with her tiny hand. Her fist drilled into his nose strongly, causing him to let go of her arm and scream out in pain, holding his face in his hands. Joanie immediately embraced Mickey's side, startled, and looking for her back to hide behind.

"Hahaha!" Vaas pointed and laughed at the injured pirate. "You just got _punched_ by a little girl!"

"F-Fuck!" The pirate man felt his nose, finding that the bridge of it had a bloodied cut over it now. "You little bitch!" He tried grabbing for Joanie, but Mickey immediately stopped him, with a drawn gun to his forehead.

"Get back." Mickey ordered with a firm tone. "Don't touch her. Just sit back down on that crate and forget about it."

Even if he were taller than Mickey, he still had to heed her warning. She was still a pirate lord, and her word was as much law as Vaas'. He made a grumble under his breath and threw Joanie one, final glare, before he sat back down on the crate and just held his bloodied nose.

"Aw, it's okay." Mickey patted the top of Joanie's head, feeling how she was tucking herself underneath of Mickey's arm, head pressed against her side, and her arms clutching around her waist.

Vaas took a good look at Mickey and Joanie, and saw a mental picture of a mother-Mickey comforting the daughter-Joanie, after she was just startled by something horrific. Perhaps Mickey _was _suited more to be a mother, after all.

Mickey hugged Joanie, walking her off from the pirate men, that were still laughing at the injured pirate.

"I'm going to take Joanie out of the Pit. I'll be back." Mickey walked Joanie off.

"Yeah, sure." Vaas waved her off.

**This chapter is a little boring, but, it's the start of something new and familiar at the same time.**

**Welcome the newest lackey of the crew, Joanie Jets! A thirteen-year-old bank robber, that ran away from her old-life to start anew with a clean slate. She's tough, but not over-the-top tough. That would make a situation awkward... like they usually do with most tough girls in films these days. Sigh.**

**More to come with Jason and friends, in the next chapter!**


	22. The Turning Point

_"Dearly beloved. We are gathered here today to honor the spirit of Jonathan Hutchinson."_

_Attending Johnny's funeral was the hardest thing to do. Family members gathered all around to honor Johnny's deceased soul, while looking down at an empty corpse of himself, laying among his uncovered coffin. The lid was still opened, and it showed his face, and hands that wrapped over his chest. He was dressed in a corpse's black tuxedo, with a red rose pinned to the breast pocket._

_He looked absolutely comfortable where he lied. The interior of the coffin cushioned his corpse so softly, with his head laying back on a fluffy, white pillow. His eyes were closed, and his mouth was shut. He looked as if he were really sleeping..._

_The air outside in the funeral grounds was cold and crisp, because of the upcoming Winter season approaching fast. Johnny would have loved to go on an outing in that weather. He loved Winter mornings._

_"Honorable soldier to the British Army, Johnny served with pride and..." The priest's words drifted off from Mickey's deafened ears._

_She couldn't stop staring at her dead brother's face, as he laid in his coffin. He was just there, but just a hollowed man of his former self, now. Everyone else around her felt like faceless strangers. The world just didn't feel so real at the moment of that burial._

_"Johnny...!" Mickey couldn't hold it in any longer. Just the thought of Johnny being buried was everything that made her burst out into tears._

_She ran to his side and held onto his immobile arm, shaking him, trying to wake him up._

_"Johnny! Johnny!" Mickey screamed her brother's name. "Please, Johnny! Wake up! Don't leave me!" She cried and cried, clutching his arm tightly._

_Mickey's father couldn't think of trying to take her away from the coffin. For he, too, was bursting out into tears, crouching down to the ground, hands together, and just buried his face in his forearms. He could still hear Mickey crying for Johnny to wake up._

_But he never did._

**_Bang!_**

"Grant!" Jason screamed out in horror, when the blast of a gunshot rung out in his ears, and blood spurted out of the side of Grant's neck profusely.

Immediately, Grant's body went slumped to the ground, beside Jason.

When Jason looked over his shoulder to see who fired that gunshot, he found a trio of masked pirates, and their pirate lord Vaas, standing above them on a cruddy-built bridge, just above the trenches the brothers just snuck through together. Jason didn't say anything to Vaas, when he heard him chuckling wickedly. He went back to Grant's side immediately, putting both his hands over the large, gaping hole in his neck, trying hard to stop the heavy bleeding.

"No! Stay with me, Grant!" Jason's voice was full of panic and fear, holding onto his brother for dear life, as he tried holding back the spurts of blood leaking out of Grant's neck.

Everything at that moment just went into a sound of ringing, and muffling out whatever else was surrounding himself. Vaas was screaming profanity at him, about something he couldn't make out clearly, because he didn't care what he said at that moment. He could only hear himself, screaming Grant's name, begging him to stay alive.

"Please! Don't die!" Jason cried, feeling Grant's hands clawing at his shirt, trying to tell him something out of his heavy gagging of blood in his mouth. "Hold on, Grant! Hold on!"

But, the heavy bleeding right out of Grant's neck was too much to hold back. In his eyes, Grant was quickly dying, from how weak he tried to speak to Jason. His body began to start becoming motionless at every second Jason held onto his dear brother.

"No, no, no!" Jason cried more, watching as Grant was beginning to fade. "Grant! _Grant_!"

But, it was too late. Grant went limp, under Jason's hold.

When he died, Jason's hearing came back to life. He could finally hear what was happening around him now. The first thing he heard from behind him was Vaas cackling.

"... I like that. No, I _respect_ that!" Vaas shouted, but Jason had no clue of what he was talking about.

Jason backed off from Grant's body now, pushing himself away from the pirates that stared down at him, like he were their dinner.

"I'm going to give you thirty seconds." Vaas suddenly warned Jason, still eyeing him, with a gun in his hand. "And, if this jungle doesn't eat you up alive, _I_ will."

It was a game Vaas put into play now. Letting Jason go run into the jungle, giving him thirty seconds of a run, was something unordinary of him to do. But, he saw something in Jason that Jackal mentioned before about him, and Vaas wanted nothing more, but to test the young man, and his abilities in survival.

Vaas, still watching Jason with large eyes, became irritated that Jason was not moving from his spot, looking petrified. Vaas whistled at him, like a dog.

"Hey! You fucking _deaf_?!" Vaas raised his voice angrily. "I _said_ get the _fuck out_ of here, you chicken fuck!"

With those words, it finally registered into Jason's mind of what he must do. As fast as Vaas was shouting at him to run for his dear life, Jason picked himself up, and bolted straight into the clamored jungle path, straight into the unfamiliar.

But, Jason was not running alone.

"M-Mickey! Where are we running?!" Joanie's little voice chased behind Mickey's back, as the two girls went running straight into the jungle area Jason was blindly running through himself. "Mickey! I don't understand what's going on!"

It was all Mickey's idea to go chase Jason.

Running along the wooded path, just in the far left of where Jason was running on a solid path ground, Mickey was following in his footsteps, keeping up with his speed. Joanie did not want to leave Mickey alone, so, without Vaas even realizing that the two girls disappeared, they went running after Jason, in the shadows.

After witnessing the scene of Jason trying to save his dying brother, it was everything that made her mind reel right back to that funeral of Johnny's. She already knew the pain of losing a sibling, but, she hadn't witnessed anyone else act out on the exact emotions she felt as well. Jason was the first person to show that much emotion, that she hadn't seen in years.

Gunshots rang out quickly, as they ripped through the leaves and air to try hitting Jason. Mickey's run must have been noticed by the other pirates, and took it for a sign of pursuing after Jason as well. They shot bullets in point-blank ranges, likely out of fun of missing Jason, to make the young man more riled up, and run faster.

Joanie began breathing hard, unable to keep up to Mickey much longer.

Mickey heard this, and stopped midway to grab Joanie with her cyber arm, threw her on her back to hang on, and they both went on the pursuit.

Jason was on quite the run through the foreign jungle path. The path was going steep every step he took, finding that he had to act quick on every jog he made out. He had to jump cliff to cliff, bear a terrible fall down a deep trench into another jungle path, outwit pirates that tried to stop him with knives or guns, break contact with a helicopter pursuit that was not making anything fair, with a giant spotlight right on top of Jason's head.

It felt like an hour of running, but, it was the most frightening that he's ever had to route.

Mickey was very familiar with the path he was forced to run on, so the chase was a simple task for herself to follow on foot.

"Oh, fuck! They found me!" Jason shouted at himself, as he found himself in the crosshairs of a pursuing helicopter overhead, and guards right at his tail. What more, he was on a rigid bridge that felt old from age, and couldn't bear much more weight.

The chase soon came to a screeching halt, when the fighter helicopter shot fire-rounds at the bridge, and it finally went out.

"Aahhh!" Jason was heard screaming, as he plummeted straight into the face of a cold, freezing river bank.

The bridge came crashing down as well, moments after he did. The sound of his body hitting the surface of the water was like a well-undeserved smack to his face, most likely killing him from impact. The rocks would have likely broke his back, or cracked his head open, from the fall.

"I think he's toast!" A pirate of Vaas' crew wickedly cackled, lowering his weapon. The other pirates lowered their weapons, seeing no sign of struggle in the river bank.

Vaas, approaching the crew from the jungle path, went straight to the edge of the cliff, and looked down at the river bank. He saw the massive remains of the tattered bridge, but, no signs of life, and Jason. He made a crooked smile on his face.

"Well... looks like we won't have much more problems from Snow White now, eh?" Vaas made a sounding smirk down at the river bank. "Come on. Let's forget this fuck."

As the pirates began to turn back to the jungle path, Vaas then realized,

"Where's mi chica?"

[Deceiving To Help]

"Mickey... do you think it's a good idea to do this?"

"Well, of course, my dear! When is it never?"

At the side of the river bank, on dry land, Mickey and Joanie Jets sat on each side of Jason Brody's unconscious body.

It was a tough task to do, but, Mickey eventually scouted Jason's floating body in the furthest river from camp, and pulled him out to shore. They didn't know whether to wake him up, because it would mean that he would want to kill them, without question. Mickey didn't want to have a brawl, while Joanie was still there with her.

"But, why are you going to help this guy?" Joanie asked in a decretory voice, as she watched Mickey trying to find a good pulse from Jason's neck or wrists. "He's one of the guys we had to kill. If Vaas finds out, then-"

"Vaas won't find out." Mickey stopped Joanie, with a firm tone. "I am willing to help this man out, no matter the cost. Cheers!"

Joanie still pressed on for a reasonable explanation for Mickey's odd obsession for wanting to assist Jason at his desperate time of need.

"... Can I ask why?" Joanie bravely looked to Mickey. "I'm not so sure of what you think you'll achieve from this..."

Mickey sat quietly for a moment, staring blankly at Jason's still-face. She then made a small sigh to herself, as she pulled out something from her pocket. It was... permanent marker?

"Have you ever lost something extremely close to you, Joanie?" Mickey asked, as she went for the left-bicep of Jason's arm to start writing something down on his skin, carefully, so that she wouldn't smudge or mess up.

Joanie made a peevish grumble, shifting her eyes away. "... Yeah." She nodded her head. "It's... the reason why I'm on this island in the first place."

"Then, you should understand the emotions this Brody man had, when he just lost his brother, yes?" Mickey asked, not taking her eyes off of her writing.

Joanie nodded her head again. "I did. A _whole_ lot."

After writing something important down on Jason's arm, Mickey and Joanie had no choice but to push him straight back into the river bank, where he was being gently taken across to the other side of the island, which was Rakyat territory.

Joanie watched Jason being carried off by the currents and looked back to Mickey, seeing that she was already standing up and dusting off her shoulders.

"What did you write on Jason's arm, Mickey?" Joanie asked, in all, modest curiosity.

_You may not like this, but I want to help you. I'm someone from the camp. If you want to find me, then start searching. If not, then don't._

[Meeting Joanie Jets]

"Well, well! If it isn't the small fry!" Hoyt's voice rung out loudly, when he finally set his eyes on the new girl, Joanie. "You look _so_ short! Shorter than Mickey!"

Joanie was startled by Hoyt's booming voice, and immediately stood closer to Mickey's side.

"Aw, she doesn't like me." Hoyt walked around his desk to approach Joanie. "I honestly never give two fucks about whatever the pirates get and throw away on this island. It's never my real, fucking problem. But you?" He pointed at Joanie, declaring a grin. "You're Mickey's little favorite." Hoyt stood a few feet away from Joanie. He was standing taller than her, despite the fact about his own underweight.

"Mickey told me that you're not like the other men on the island." Joanie mumbled, but was still audible to hear. "She told me not to go around strange men here."

Hoyt shifted his eyes back up to Mickey's, with a sounding smirk, folding his arms. "You sound like you're a young mother already." He raised his eyebrow at her, noticing that Mickey just rolled her eye to that comment. "Ah, but I forgot to ask your name!" Hoyt looked back down to Joanie. "I'm Hoyt Volker. Charmed." He gave a nod to Joanie.

"I'm... Joanie Jets. Great to see you?" She didn't know what to really say. Hoyt had a lingering demeanor about himself that made her think that he was either bi-polar, or just plum-crazy. He could have likely snapped to anything Joanie said wrong, which was why she was so preserved from trying to talk too much.

"She seems... welsh." Hoyt whispered towards Mickey.

"Oh, don't say that." Mickey waved Hoyt off. "Joanie is going to be more than welsh, and you'll see."

"Whatever. I've got things to do, now that those other hostages are gone." Hoyt shrugged to himself, walking back around the desk to his leather chair. "I'm glad Vaas killed Jason's brother. He was a worthless catch. Idiots wouldn't know that, though." Hoyt didn't notice, but, Mickey and Joanie made nervous looks on their faces, when Jason's name was brought up. "Buck found that_ Keith_ guy earlier today, and immediately bought him. Sick bastard and his twisted ways again... Whatever else with Jason's friends is going to be easy."

"You speak a little highly of that Jason guy, Hoyt." Mickey couldn't help but notice.

"Well, I thought he would survive that fall, too, into the river bank, but, nah... what am I kidding, huh?" He smirks at both the girls. "Now, let _granddad_ do his work. Go play in the road, when traffic comes around."

"Okay." Mickey scoffed, taking Joanie's hand into her real hand. "When we get traffic, we'll jump all over the hoods of their cars, streaming gunshot rounds on the ones trying to run us down, while playing Two Steps From Hell." She lastly added in, walking out of the office.

She could hear Hoyt bark out laughing, in a cheerful tone. At least he knew his new-aged rock orchestra well.

While the two were making their way downstairs, into the main, large room of the building, Mickey felt Joanie pull at her arm childishly.

"What do we tell Vaas?" She whispered rashly at Mickey. "He might be wondering where you are. And, I don't want you to get into trouble!"

Mickey smiled down at Joanie, patting the top of her head, with her cybernetic hand. "Have no fear. I am a pathological liar, too."

[A Talk With The Kingly]

Arriving back into camp, it was already becoming bright out, with the morning sun rising from the ocean horizon. The camp was beginning to quiet down, as the pirates usually stayed up most nights to either party, kill, bet on intense gaming, et cetera. Pirates were in their shacks and shanties, seeming to be quieting down into slumbers. Grumbles of some talking in their sleep were heard, along with broken bottles breaking from unbalanced tables, and a far-distant man shouting at a prostitute in a foreign language they didn't care about.

"Hey," A familiar voice spoke up to Mickey's direction. It was Carlos. He just walked out of a shack, full of sleeping pirates and a poker table full of guns, poker chips, money, and a man laying on top of it all, slumbering. "Mickey-Mick." He waved over to Mickey tiredly, rubbing the back of his neck. "What's up with you? I never see you out this early in the morning."

"Oh, just wanting to show Joanie around the party grounds. Everyone's asleep, so they won't bug her that much, like before." Mickey lied, stunning Joanie slightly with her words.

But, Carlos bought it, or didn't care. He just shrugged, rolling his tired shoulders, clearing his throat. "Want to go for a stroll?" He offered.

"Sure." Mickey shrugged one shoulder. "You heading back to your place?"

"Yeah. Tired. Nothing new." Then, Carlos' eyes shifted down to Joanie. "And how's the new, small fry doing? Swell?"

Joanie looked at Carlos, but was nervous all-over. "Are you a pirate lord?" She asked, sounding a little scared.

"Nah." Carlos shook his head.

"Then, it's none of your business!" Joanie bravely snapped at him.

Carlos burst out laughing, patting Joanie on the top of her head. She swatted his hand away. "She's like a mini-Vaas, but a girl!"

"I-I'm not mini! And, I'm _nothing_ like Vaas!" Joanie raised her little voice again. "I'm just not hitting my growth-sprout yet..."

The three walked together, talking some about this and that, nothing spectacularly notable. But, it was obvious that Carlos had a wandering-eye for Mickey, from the way he would always like to talk nice to her, and still have his tough-guy motto on. Joanie immediately sensed that right off of him, and smiled when she heard the familiar sound of Mickey dejecting him once more with a simple no to any offer of "hanging out" later on.

"Hey, Mickey-Mick, by-the-by... I forgot to tell you something earlier." Carlos realized something, raising his eyebrows to himself. "Vaas noticed that you and short-Joanie were missing from the Pit, when that Jason Brody guy went running." It was Mickey's turn to raise her eyebrows. "Where were you two? He said he couldn't find you in your shack, either..."

"Ah." Mickey shrugged. "I got hungry after I told Vaas I'd take her out of the Pit, and we went down to the old cafeteria. The cook was in a fuse when we got there, because I kept demanding him to bring out the tea herbs again." Once again, Mickey lied. A kiddy lie, but, it was obviously something she would do. Something not out of the ordinary.

Carlos just chuckled, shaking his head. "You British people and your damned tea... I thought that was stereotypical to think that kind of stuff, but..."

"Oh, shush." Mickey rolled her eye.

When they arrived to the emptied part of the road, Carlos went his way, and the two girls went to the awaiting shack.

Seeing the shack made Joanie yawn, from the mere thought of a cot waiting for her inside. She didn't even realize how exhausted she was.

"Oh, my poor little girl." Mickey stopped to pick Joanie up in her prosthetic arm, easily carrying her with that one arm. "Your eyes are red! And your face is pale!" Mickey exclaimed, running her good hand over Joanie's bangs to push them aside, and examine her face. "I'll leave you alone for an entire day to rejuvenate, yeah?"

Joanie nodded her sleepy head.

Going into the shack, Mickey carried Joanie over to the spare cot in the one-large room shack and laid her down gently, laying her head down on a worn pillow, and pulling up worn-out sheets over her little, frail body. Joanie curled on the cot into a _C_ and already had her eyes shut.

Mickey sat right next to Joanie's cot side, not wanting to leave just yet. She sat close to Joanie, combing her hair back with her fingers. Everyone knew that the feeling of their hair being combed, while they were in a drowsy state, was just a perfect way to fall asleep comfortably. Joanie was immediately asleep before Mickey could even think of humming her a little song to help her doze off more. The sound of Joanie's small snoring was now live.

Mickey chuckled to herself. "Mini-Vaas... she even _snores_ like him." In fact, the two shared the same, green eyes. Attitude. Sharp personality, in a sane person. Spunk.

She found it awfully funny, because Joanie actually _hated_ Vaas, with a passion. She merely found him to be an insane, psychopathic, drug-addicted, lunatic running wild with power he shouldn't even have. Joanie knew far too much about having extreme power in her hands, and she obviously saw Vaas having an amply of power to handle. But, of course, Vaas didn't see it in such a way, and only thought Joanie was just being over-dramatic about it.

Once, Joanie called Vaas a "tall, manifested, mohawk motherfucker", right in front of his crew. It was hilarious, because Vaas was stunned by the little girl's own words. Joanie looked as if she would never speak such garbage, but, there she was, and talking him down. He then blamed Mickey for teaching her these things, but, Mickey insisted that it was all because of _his own_ bad language that influenced Joanie to start talking real trash.

It began to show a cantankerous side of Vaas then on, but in a humorous way.

"Sweetest dreams, my little jay." Mickey brushed Joanie's falling bangs out of her face.

"Hey, you." A man's somewhat-familiar voice, from the shack door, suddenly startled Mickey into freezing where she was. "You said you could help me."

**Dun-dun-DUN! Dun... Dun... Dun... DUUUUUUUN.**

**We're going to be turning these events around for a new set of faces, yeah? A start of finally introducing the protagonist of Far Cry 3, Jason Brody. What shall happen in the next chapter? Find out. DUN, DUN, DUN.**


	23. The Start Of Everything

"Hey, you. You said you could help me."

Somehow, it was extremely odd to find that Jason Brody had come back to the camp, and speak with the only person that wanted to speak civilly to him. Mickey was sure that he would never want to come back into the camp and try to talk. But, then again, Jason had friends on that side of the island, opposing the Rakyat. If he wanted to be a hero, then there was a higher-risk of him sneaking straight back into the pirates' domain.

And, it didn't seem to take him so long to make a choice. Twelve hours to himself to think, and he made a daring decision to come back. The only way he would have known that Mickey had written that message was if someone on the Rakyat side knew her hand-writing well. Arch was dead, but he may have given pointers to the other team players of the Rakyat that he wanted to be familiar with Mickey. Perhaps that Dennis man found Jason?

"Yes, I did." Mickey stood up from crouching, and turned to Jason.

Jason stepped into the shack, shutting the wooden door behind him. He didn't want to stand outside too long for pirates to recognize him.

Mickey now had a better look at Jason's profile and face. He was all American, but not that it were important. He was a rugged-looking young man, that looked like he had some cuts, scraps and bruises from venturing out into the jungles. He was very tall - same height as Vaas. Mickey thought he went through a cave, judging by the strong scent of Earth minerals on him. He carried two, large weapons strapped to his back; one was a long shotgun, and the other was a scoped rifle, still bearable after being used in melee. His belt now carried different, small pouches of bullets, aid, knives, and et cetera that he needed.

But, if there was one thing Mickey noticed most, was that Jason Brody was a dashing young man, with large, jungle-green eyes. Not that she would have seriously fallen head-over-heels for him. It was just something that she pointed out to herself, and then, forgot about later.

"Pleasure to meet you." Mickey extended her cybernetic arm out, with her hand offering. "I am Mickey."

Jason didn't hesitate to shake her hand as a greet. "I'm Jason. I guess you knew that, by now..." He firmly shook her hand. "Nice arm, by-the-by." Jason complimented, unable to keep in the idea that he was a little surprised by her robotic arm.

"Thanks." Mickey smiled, taking her hand back to flex her robotic arm. "Manufactured by the Japanese. Built by a boy genius. You should meet him." Mickey then glanced over to Jason's own arm. "Nice tattoo." She nodded.

"Yeah..." Jason quietly responded, sounding slightly unsure. "This island's full of everything, huh?" Jason scoffed after a while, also smiling slightly.

"Except they don't have enough herbal tea... And sugar... Bloody shame." Mickey stepped over to a wooden table, with Jason following behind. "I hope you didn't get into too much trouble, on your way here. I presume that the pirates wouldn't like you too much for jumping back into their territory..."

"I'm fine." Jason assured her. "Just got nicked by a bullet to my shoulder." He shrugged his scrapped shoulder, showing wrapped bandages he put over it. "Dennis showed me out of the Rakyat side of the island..."

"_Dennis_..." Mickey scoffed the name to herself silently.

Jason heard, but didn't bother much on the idea. "This fucking place is bigger than I imagined. It'll be weeks to just cross to the volcano." He joked lightly.

"How right you are." Mickey nodded to him. "That volcano hasn't been visited in centuries. 'Should pay the Gods a visit some time."

Then, Jason and Mickey begun to go over plans of what she was intending to do for her part in the help. She was more than happy to get her kick into the fight, but was somehow a little scared of what would happen if the others found out about her little plan. How would the other pirate lords react? What would Hoyt do to her, if he knew that she was helping out the hostage? What would Vaas say...?

"You should try activating the towers. I'm going to want every detail of your hunt, with this," Mickey went through a satchel she picked up from the side of the wooden table, and pulled out a radio walkie-talkie from it. She handed it over to Jason. "I've an idea where the others could be. But, first, your girlfriend."

She pulled out a large, hand-drawn, well-made map of the entire island, unrolling the poster onto the wood table surface.

"Here." She pointed down at a spot on the island, that was labeled as Warehouse Six, right near a coast and two watchtowers. "Nothing spectacular about it from first glance, but, Vaas is keeping her in that place. I'm positive about it."

Jason thought to himself for a moment. "... _Vaas_..." It was his turn to scoff. "Is that his name?" He glanced over to Mickey.

Mickey nodded her head. "Not normal, right? Anyhow..." She stood back up straight. "Liza should be in that warehouse. Pirates are loaded up inside, guarding that place like their lives depend on it. Be as brutal as you want to them." Mickey shrugged. "They were messing with little Joanie earlier, and I'm holding a grudge."

"Joanie?" Jason took a guess and looked over his shoulder at Joanie's sleeping form. "The little girl?"

"Yeah." Mickey also looked over to Joanie. "She just got here one week before you guys did. She's a little ankle-bitter, I'll warn you."

Both looked back to the map. Mickey wrote down Liza's name on the warehouse six area, with a red marker.

"Oh, and I forgot to warn you." Mickey popped the marker cap on the pen. "If by any means you are in the warehouse, _don't _be surprised if Vaas set up a trap there." Her voice was firm with that one word she warned Jason with. "I know him long enough to get his own kicks at traps. My idea? Just go with the flow with his trap. He might lead to you to Liza, if you're lucky enough."

"And, if he's _not_ leading me to Liza?" Jason pushed on, asking sharply.

"I don't see how he won't. But, if he doesn't, then, start fighting all over again. I've already got a gut feeling that you'll be just fine." Mickey patted him on the shoulder. "I'd tell you to stay out of trouble, but, that's not the case here..."

"When I find Liza, I'm going to bring her to the Doctor's. He's got an underground area Daisy said he kept her hidden in." Jason said, stepping back a few steps to head for the door. "But, I'm not going to stop coming back here for help." He warned Mickey. "Right now, it feels like the Rakyat are the only people I can trust now... And you, of course." He gave a nod to her, with a small, hopeful smile.

"Tell Liza I said hello!" Mickey lastly said to Jason, before he headed straight out of the shack, back into the blazing heat of morning.

[Prosthetic Sights]

"It was a sensitive procedure to do, but, quick enough to not be asleep for an entire week, yeah?" Dynamite chuckled, as he helped Mickey up to her feet. "You may feel light-headed, but, in time, it's become suitable. Believe me."

After six hours of sitting in a large, mobile chair, Dynamite finished the fragile procedure into inserting the new prosthetic eye he promised Mickey from long before. But, this short operation required Mickey's eye lids, from her damaged eye, to be sliced off. Follow by the painful stretch of her eye socket, to fit the prosthetic eye in. When the eye was in the socket, Dynamite had to do various testing with Mickey trying her best to not scream out to the feeling of metallic wires slithering into her head. She passed out instead, but it was a better thing to do, since the operation was still continuing.

When she woke, that was where Dynamite had helped her right up to her feet.

He allowed to her to walk and check her face in the nearest mirror in the room. When she looked, she was ready to pass out again.

Her eye lids sliced out left large trails of blood streams running down her cheek, even when her lids were amply numbed with shots. The pressure of the eye socket edges being stretched out left tiny, crackled lines around her eye, where the face plate there had seemed to have been irritated by the sudden change.

Looking at her new eye, she was stunned. It was a metal ball inside of her eye socket, that had textures of carved lines surrounding it. The eye itself was a glowing blue light, that shone brightly at the mirror. Not so much of a beaming light, but more of a surrounding aura. When she tried moving it, it responded fluently and smoothly, with the small sounds of the gears rolling soundly to every movement she made with her eye.

Right through her eye, she saw things more sharply and clearly. Colors seemed more brighter, and people could be picked out instantly. Opposing from her normal eye, this prosthetic eye was extremely advanced into sights and scanning people or objects.

"Here," Dynamite appeared next to her, with a white, small towel. "I added peroxide to this. Just clean the blood off your face, and wipe it around the edges of your eye." He handed over the peroxided towel, and Mickey gladly took it. "I apologize greatly for the blood. You didn't lose so much of it, though. You're in excellent condition." Dynamite explained as Mickey started wiping off the dried blood on her face. "Your eye may feel irritated for a few days, but, it'll be something you'll get quite use to..."

Mickey was oddly quiet, and Dynamite noticed it. She seemed deep in thought, which was nothing like her to do. She was always talking, or cracking jokes.

Dynamite looked at Mickey's reflection in the mirror. "What's wrong?" He asked her. "Did something happen?"

"No." Mickey sighed a little. "I'm just a tad stunned at how my new eye looks."

"Are you sure?" Dynamite pushed on. "I'm quite sure something is wrong. You aren't _this_ stunned usually..."

"Oh, I'm fine!" Mickey smiled widely at Dynamite's reflection. "I really do like it! Really, I do. I'm able to see right through it! It's just a... bigger change."

Dynamite made a smirk, shrugging his shoulders. "You should feel a little uncomfortable. I would be, too."

After that procedure was finally finished, Mickey was escorted out of the base once more, being greeted by an eager-Joanie, waiting anxiously outside for her arrival.

"Whoa! Mickey! Your eye!" Joanie's eyes widened, staring at Mickey's new, cybernetic eye. "Are you a robot?! A Terminator?! A cyborg?!" Her eyes were glowing from the mere thought of her role model being a full-fledged robot. "That would be _so_ awesome!"

Mickey laughed to all that nonsense. "Okay, okay, excited elmo." Mickey pet the top of Joanie's head with her cyber hand. "Let's just get back home-"

"Oh my God! A robot!" A random pirate from not very far shouted out in shock, pointing straight at Mickey's direction. "It's a fucking robot! We're all going to die!" He went running for his life, through a confused crew of pirates that recently finished taking out a few rejects on the beach.

[The Wrong Timing]

_Bang. Bang. Bang!_

Three rounds at a reject target, and all of the shots hit the chest perfectly.

"Hey! I did it!" Joanie cheered excitedly, when the reject went down on his face without a sound being made. "Mickey! I shot him!" She looked up to Mickey, with a hopeful and excited grin on her face.

The shooting range looked normal to other, typical ranges, except this one had a torn-off roof, due to a recent tropical storm. Sunlight shone into the once-darkened range brightly, as well as the jungle breeze drifting inside with the strong scents of Earth, minerals, fire smoke, and ocean. There were a few tattered lounging furniture in the back that were still suitable to sit on or use. Mickey was standing next to Joanie, behind a stone-wall-divider that separated the shooters from the targets in greater distances.

Mickey smiled widely to Joanie. "Good job! Wait until the next target comes out. It'll be a moving-target practice!"

"Bring it on!" Joanie declared vigorously.

"What's the fucking commotion about?" Vaas stepped into the shooting range, finding the two girls standing together. "Is she learning how to _actually_ kill?" He chuckled.

Joanie made a glare at Vaas. "Mickey!" She then asked wickedly, "Does _Vaas_ count as a moving target?!"

"Haha, fuck you, too." Vaas was ready to flick his fingers at the back of Joanie's head, but just scoffed it off. He went over to a tattered couch at the back of the room and slumped down, exhaling tiredly. "Can you fucking believe this?" He suddenly asked Mickey.

"What?" Mickey looked over her shoulder at Vaas.

"That motherfucker, Jason Brody, is _still_ alive!" Vaas shouted, slamming his fist down on the arm of the couch.

Joanie, not looking at Vaas, made a raise of her eyebrows, with her expressing falling flat. She shifted her eyes up to Mickey, worriedly.

Vaas chuckled to himself, with a thought making him laugh. "I mean... I even saw a fucking _tatau_ on his fucking arm!"

Mickey and Joanie were confused by the new word, _tatau_. The way Vaas said it made Joanie giggle.

"It's not fucking funny!" Vaas snapped at Joanie, receiving the middle-finger from her. "Jason fucking Brody and the fucking Rakyat... They see him fucking suited as one of them? As one of us!" Vaas' voice was growing louder and louder rapidly, with anger emerging. "My fucking sister... that fucking whore! She'll tat anyone that she can fuck! And, not to mention..." Vaas rubbed his palms together, sounding as if he were snarling as well. "I found a little message written on his other arm."

Mickey silently gulped. "... Could you tell what it said?"

Vaas made a scoff. "It was smudged up from the water in the river bank he was in before, so I can't fucking determine the writer. It said something about a fucker from this camp willing to help him out." Irritated, Vaas rubbed his face in frustration, then moving his hand up to push back his mohawk. "Who the fuck had the indecency of being this fucking... betraying! This fucking demising! This fucking..."

He looked up at the two girls, seeing that they looked a little uneasy from his screaming.

He laid back on the couch and took an extremely deep breath, and exhaled after a moment of holding it in. "I'm going to chill... I'm going to chill..." He chanted quietly, rolling his shoulders.

"Vaas!" A different voice now entered the fray. It was Hoyt. "Vaas, you wanted to talk to me?" He pushed opened the door to the shooting range. He saw Vaas on the couch, and also saw Mickey and Joanie. "Afternoon, girls." He smiled and nodded to them.

"Hi, Hoyt!" Joanie cheerfully greeted him with a wave, seemingly forgetting about Vaas' recent outburst. "I'm learning how to shoot with Mickey!"

"Ah, yes. A good day to shoot some fucking rejects down as targets." Hoyt took a deep breath of the outdoor air. "Lovely weather we're having."

"Why, boss? 'You planning a parade?" Vaas asked, tiredly rubbing his forehead with his fingertips.

Hoyt burst out laughing to Vaas' comment. "That's why I love you, Vaas! You make me laugh!" He pointed at him, with an amenable smile. "Everything in business is so _goddamn_ serious! But, _you_." He lastly chuckled, before asking, "So, uh... what about Snow White?" He referred to Jason Brody.

Vaas made a frustrated exhale to the sound of Jason's nickname. "You know what? I don't give a _fuck _about him. I don't give a fuck..."

"Really?" Hoyt sounded a little surprised, raising one eyebrow at him. "Then, _why_ am I _here_?" It quickly dumbed down to a sharp tone of voice.

"Once you've got the ransom money, his friends are going to be sold, like that." Vaas snapped his fingers, catching Mickey's and Joanie's attention. "I shot his older brother. I did _what_ you _wanted_ with his younger brother..." Then, suddenly, Vaas' voice toned down into a softer voice. "... It's my sister." He almost sounded ready to either worry or cry to himself, from bringing up his sister again. "... She's inking that white boy-"

"I don't give a _fuck_ about you family!" Hoyt suddenly snapped, startling the girls, and Vaas. "It is by _my grace_ that your _head_ isn't impaled on the antenna of my _car_! Therefore, I would _like it _if you gave a _fuck _about Jason Brody!" His voice sounded as if he were spitting venom, like an angered cobra. He even sounded intent on killing Vaas with a snap.

Joanie merged close to Mickey's side, startled by Hoyt's outburst.

"Okay, Hoyt!" Vaas immediately tried calming him down. "Okay...! Alright...!"

"Fantastic!" Hoyt's demeanor flew back into a giddy, well-behaved attitude, as he smiled at Vaas and the girls. "Ah, I'm really loving this weather!" He took another deep breath. "What's the name of that village, down the road? Beras Town?" He glanced at Mickey, as if she knew that answer. She did, but didn't want to speak up just yet. "A bunch of native sympathizers! They stole a transportation manifest that's close to my heart. I would like to pay them a visit..." After that, he turned to leave the range. "Nice to see you, Vaas."

With that, he was gone.

The range fell silent for a long, irritating moment. Mickey then walked to Vaas and tried talking to him.

"Don't fucking talk to me right now!" Vaas snapped at her, unnaturally. This startled Mickey to not reach her hand out to him. "I'm going to clear my fucking head."

With that, he was also gone out of the range.

"What the Hell!" Joanie growled. "He didn't have to yell..." She drifted off from her rant, when she looked over to Mickey, noticing how quiet she fell.

[We Meet Again]

"Hey!" A familiar voice from outside the shack entered the place. It was, surprisingly, Jason Brody once again. "I told you I'd come back for more help."

"And you didn't lie!" Mickey grinned up at Jason. "Nice to see you are so determined."

When Jason got into the shack, he told everything that happened with the rescue for Liza. Turned out that Vaas _did _have someone waiting for Jason as a trap maneuver. Jason explained that he woke up tied to a chair, in an old, crumbling building, with Liza, Vaas and another pirate. He even mentioned that he saw his friend, Oliver, who was passed out during the entire ordeal of a massive building fire Vaas tried to kill him in. Luckily, he escaped with Liza, unharmed. Vaas took Oliver with him, after he set the building on fire, so, now his objective was Oliver.

"What's Oliver to you?" Mickey asked, slightly curious, as she brought out the map again.

"He's a really close friend of mine. Met him in high school, after he was trying out weed for the first time." He chuckled to the memory. "Fucking dope-head is my friend. But, he wouldn't seriously understand what was going on, if his life depended on it."

"Good thing." Mickey nodded. "Good for him to not comprehend things, like this situation."

Once again, Mickey was going over the details of Oliver's whereabouts.

"Sadly, your drugged-up friend is being bought by a buyer soon." Mickey looked up at the opened window of her shack. "It's still daylight out, and the buyer is suppose to be arriving by nightfall, and there's only one spot he would want to meet Oliver at..."

And, at the same time, Jason and Mickey pointed at the same direction on the map, shouting, "Here!"

The location was isolated, but quartered enough to park heavy vehicles and a helicopter at. A buyer's location area, because they did not want to be seen by other people.

"Hoyt mentioned something about the people taking his transportation manifest there." Mickey added in, taking the red marker once more. But, this time, she handed it over to Jason, to let him write out on the map.

"I bet Oliver's on the manifest!" Jason thought up, writing down Oliver's name on the map, follow by scribbling out possible sneak areas he could use to maneuver into the area, without being spotted by pirates. "This looks fine. I could sneak up to this post and see if Oliver emerges out of that building. If he does, then I'm diving in."

"You'll have to snipe there." Mickey tapped her finger on the marked area. "This'll mean danger for Oliver's life. You'll have to be quick on your toes."

"When am I not?" Jason chuckled, smiling in a witty way.

Jason moved his hand down to write something else on the marked area, when he noticed that his hand accidentally bumped into Mickey's real hand. Mickey felt that, and they both stepped away from each other, not realizing how close they were standing next to each other at the table. Mickey shifted her eyes elsewhere, and Jason cleared his throat uncomfortably.

Jason took a chance and glanced over at Mickey. "Nice improvements on the eye." He commented finally.

"Oh," Mickey scoffed, rubbing the corner of her prosthetic eye. "This? I'm still trying to get use to the idea of having a new eye... It feels weird to have a second eye again."

"I like it." Jason bravely smiled at her. "You should consider keeping it for now on."

Mickey nodded, but she looked fidgety from the compliment. She's been complimented before, but, not by some outsider. This was the first.

"Well, I'm going to go." Jason adjusted the shoulder straps around his chest and started heading out the door. "I'll see you again."

"Sure...!" Mickey waved him off, still sounding unsure as Jason did.

**Oh ho, ho, ho. We've got something happening... HO, HO, HO, indeed!**

**What shall happen afterwards to Mickey-Mick? Will Joanie ever get the fighter's action of getting onto the battlefield? What does Jason think of all this? Why am I asking so many questions? Do these even interpret with the tale? FIND OUT MORE, in the next chapter. OH HO, HO, HO.**


	24. The Duel

Joanie sat on top of a crate, right at the opened window of the shack, with her arms resting on the sill, and looking out into the sunny land. Mickey was busy at the vanity, cleaning off splotches of dirt from her prosthetic arm, and polishing her new eyeball. She could easily remove the eyeball, since her eye socket was finally becoming use to the new eye. Wires attached inside of her head easily slithered out whenever she removed the eye, and easily slithered back to connect to her brain to control again.

"Do you think Jason will come back?" Joanie asked Mickey, still looking out the window.

"What was that?" Mickey questioned, while finishing on polishing her new eye.

Joanie got up from the crate and walked over to Mickey's side. "I think he likes you." She couldn't help but coo.

"Oh, please." Mickey rolled her good eye. "Let's not discuss that sort of thing, Joanie."

"But, why not!" Joanie asked in a peevish voice. "I saw that look Jason gave you, when you two were talking about that location where that druggy could be." Joanie looked at Mickey's reflection in the cracked mirror.

"That look was nothing notable." Mickey said sharply. "And anyways, I find nothing interesting about him."

"You're lying." Joanie smiled evilly at Mickey. "I think you find _something _interesting about him, at least."

"Don't get your hopes up." Mickey said in a stern voice, while she had to push in her eyeball back into the eye-socket. She did it easily, but it irritated the edges of the socket more and more. Once it was in, it became mobile once more, adjusting back into place and moving around a couple of times to register its place, before it shone the same, soft blue light. Once it did, Mickey looked at Joanie. "Be careful about who you look up to, Joanie. They always change."

Joanie didn't know what else to say, except become a little fidgety over the fact that Mickey was not interested in Jason.

"Besides, he's got a girlfriend. I'm _not_ going to become a mistress." Mickey sighed heavily, putting away her polishing kit back into the vanity drawer. "Mickey is not _everyone's _girlfriend. I've got Vaas, already."

"Oh, you mean the boyfriend that's been suddenly ignoring you, for the past few days?" Joanie hissed, crossing her thin arms.

"_Look_," Mickey exhaled. "He's not _ignoring_ me. He's just wrapped up in the whole ordeal of Jason and his friends still being alive. That's all."

"_Sure_ it is..." Joanie scoffed, walking across the shack floor, back to the crate at the window.

Immediately when she approached the window, she was surprised by a familiar face.

"Guess who!" It was Jason.

"Jason!" Joanie's eyes lit up.

Mickey looked over her shoulder, becoming uneasy all over again.

Jason stepped into the shack, now looking slightly different. He had more bandages on his arms, and a small, square cloth over his bloodied cheekbone. He had two different set of weapons now strapped to his back, but it was nothing new. Jason was greeted by an eager-Joanie, who took his hand to pull him into the shack faster, as he kicked the door shut behind him.

"Did you save that druggy?!" Joanie asked excitedly, receiving a good laugh from Jason.

"Yeah, I did." He patted the top of her head. "Got a lot of bullets to the arms, but, I'm fine, either way."

"And now, you need help to get to Keith?" Mickey asked, with her arms folded, and standing up from the wooden chair.

Jason, seeing Mickey, his eyes lit up a little. "Yeah... Keith is the another friend of mine."

Mickey nodded, not really saying much on anything else. "Then, this task will be a simple one." She went over to the poster map she finally hung up on the wall of her shack interior. She pointed at a drawn shack that read "Buck's Place". "This Buck guy's a real dog. He use to be in the army, in Australia, but was immediately discharged, when they found out some crazy shit he did behind closed doors..." Mickey took the red marker to draw a circle around Buck's shack. "But, since you're a guy, this job will be easy for you."

"Huuh?" Jason became bewildered. "What do you mean it'll be easy, because I'm a guy?"

With that, Joanie tugged on the hem of Jason's shirt to get his attention. She gestured to him to crouch down, so that she could tell him something, in a whisper.

"Buck was discharged for raping soldiers." Joanie whispered into Jason's ear.

Jason's face went pale from expression.

"Yeah, so..." Mickey saw Jason's face go blank and almost wanted to either laugh or say sorry. "... Buck's easy to please. He'll probably ask you to get him something in return. And no, I don't mean _sex_." Mickey added in, hearing Jason breath out a sigh of relief. "He's a crafty guy, that loves art. And antics. He knows this island is loaded with history, and would want you to do all the dirty work into retrieving something for him in a location, burial, or whatever crypt he'll lead you on to."

Then, as Jason approached the poster map to take a look at the map, Mickey then added in a warning.

"Beware, though. Never make Buck angered and deny whatever request he makes to you, in order to get the item. He'll likely have a cell on himself, so if you do anything to make him upset, he'll phone a guy at his own convoy and threaten to gut Keith. Is that much clear?"

"Yes, ma'am." Jason couldn't help but say.

Mickey rolled her eyes. She glanced over at Jason's face, now closely seeing that he had a smudge of blood on his chin. "You slob!"

"Wh-What?" Jason was taken back.

Mickey went back for her vanity drawer and pulled out a rag, that was already wetted with water she used to polish her eyeball with. She went over to Jason and started to roughly wipe his chin. "You've got blood on your chin! If Buck saw you like that, then he'll likely turn you down!"

Jason made a disgusted look. "I'm not going on a _date_ with him, you know!" Jason shouted back, but allowed Mickey to wipe his face.

"Honestly," Mickey sighed, finished cleaning Jason's bloody chin, but moved the rag up to clean off the side of his face, noticing specks of sand from the beach. "How does your mother keep you well-put? I'm sure it must be a hassle."

"That's mean." Jason made a false, pouty look on his face, looking down at Mickey. "I'm hurt! How could you say that to me!" He whined, petulantly.

"Because I am a neat-freak, and you need to always wash your face, mister." She joked, getting him to chuckle out loud, with a grin on his face.

After cleaning his face off, Mickey tossed the rag back to the vanity desk, and looked back to Jason.

"... You know." Jason crossed his bandaged arms, leaning slightly against the wooden table, below the poster map. "You've never told me once about why you're willingly to help me out. I mean," He raised one hand up slightly from being folded. "I understand if you feel sorry for me, but..."

"Because I know what it's like to lose a brother." Mickey finally answered. Jason fell quiet. "... My own brother died in war, when he was serving the British Army. When I saw you hold onto Grant and pleaded to him for not to die..." Mickey leaned herself against the table as well, folding her arms. "... Well, I just felt the exact same way you did, when I lost my brother. I couldn't stop crying for weeks, after his funeral..."

Jason was silent, shifting his eyes downward to the floor, as well as Mickey did. Joanie was sitting at the crate, silently listening.

"... I get it..." Jason murmured, nodding his head slightly. "... I guess we're not too different..."

"... I guess not..." Mickey shrugged.

Jason looked over to Mickey, seeing how the demeanor in herself changed rapidly, from the second she brought up her brother. He reached out his hand to her and patted her shoulder in comfort.

"Hey." He smiled right at her. "After this, do you want to go... I don't know, hang out somewhere?"

"Oh." Mickey immediately rejected that. "_No_. I don't want to."

Jason fell slightly discouraged. But, he unwillingly accepted the no, either way.

[The Fight Of Their Love-Lives]

Mickey was soundly asleep on her cot, arms folded, and leg kicked up on a pillow at the foot of her cot. Joanie was asleep as well, in her own cot, curling under the blankets like a cat, as she naturally slept every night.

The night was cool, and the partying going on from the camp, distance from her shack, had seemed to dumbed down into an ending. Everything was silent overall, and everything was finally growing stiller. The only thing softly audible outside now to hear was the family of cicadas singing outside on the tree trunks.

"What the fuck is this?" A voice boomed in the shack, startling Mickey awake, fluttering her good-eye open. Her prosthetic eye couldn't close.

It was Vaas, who she hadn't seen in the past few days. He was somehow in her shack, back facing her, and looking dead-on at the poster map she hung up earlier. Mickey's stomach dropped, and her eyes widened in horror, as she silently heard Vaas reading the labeled areas on the drawn-out map. He read the names of Jason's friends labeled on every area they were at, and noticed giant _X _marks drawn over the areas listed, marked with black ink.

Vaas wasn't stupid. He knew _exactly_ what the map was telling him.

Mickey held her breath, unable to move, without the damned thought of making one little noise, and riling Vaas up to do something stupid.

But, that luck quickly dried out, when her cot suddenly made a creaking sound.

With that being heard, Vaas immediately turned an entire degree to Mickey's direction. His face was darkened, with something raging in his eyes, like fire, or ice. Mickey's heartbeats were drumming louder and louder, to where she could hear it in her ears. She looked at Vaas, noticing how silent he stood there, staring right back at her, with just the look of vice and abhor riveting in his expression and eyes, clutching and unclutching his fists.

She made a nervous gulp.

"YOU FUCKING BITCH!" Vaas screamed, darting straight at Mickey in such speed.

Before Mickey could think of jumping up to run, Vaas grabbed her by the short sleeves of her t-shirt and lift her straight up from the cot, like a feather.

"YOU'RE THE ONE HELPING JASON BRODY?!" He screamed in her face, with his eyes wide, and teeth showing through his wide, screaming mouth.

He threw her across the room, with her back smashing into the wooden table. The table broke down into pieces, with Mickey trying her best to get back up.

Vaas pinned her straight down, with his hands on her shoulders, and shoving her down onto the rubble of wood. "WHY THE FUCK ARE YOU HELPING HIM?!" He screamed loudly, demanding an answer.

"Because you shot Grant!" Mickey finally screamed up at Vaas. "Because you don't know what it's fucking like to lose someone dear to you!"

"BITCH!" Vaas backhanded her across the face.

After that slap, Vaas was suddenly surprised by someone jumping at him from behind. Hanging on to his back was Joanie, who had a blade in her hand. Without thinking, Joanie stabbed the sharp blade straight into the shoulder-blade of Vaas' back twice.

Vaas, not completely phased by the stabs, immediately got up from Mickey and tried throwing off Joanie from his back, screaming swears and profanity at the little girl that was trying to protect Mickey. The knife in Joanie's hand was accidentally throw out of her grasp, giving Vaas the upper-hand now.

He reached over his back with both hands to grab Joanie's shoulders with a tight grip, and threw her forward off his back, throwing her across the room, darting her straight at an empty wall of the shack. She went down, with pain shooting up her back from the impact.

"Leave her the fuck alone!" Joanie shouted, through her pain.

"FUCK YOU, YOU LITTLE FUCKING PIECE OF SHIT!" Vaas marched right at Joanie, while going for her knife on the floor.

"No! Don't fucking touch her!" Mickey now reacted, having her turn into jumping on his back to hold him off from Joanie.

"GET THE FUCK OFF!" Vaas screamed, now in a chokehold of Mickey's prosthetic arm tied around his throat.

He tried throwing her off now, while stumbling straight out the shack door, into the dead of night. The sound of Vaas' screaming and struggling got the attentions of other pirates merely passing by, as they now stopped to see that it was their pirate lords, fighting for once.

Just as the same, he eventually threw Mickey off of his back, and threw her straight to the dirt ground. He climbed on top of her and jabbed two, sharp punches into her face, before she also reacted by grabbing him by the shirt collar and twisting their positions.

She was now pinning him down, using her real hand to throw down three jabs to his face with her three-finger fist. She was hesitate on using her robotic fist, because of the major damages it would do to his face, if she punched him with it. But, she was using it to hold him down, while landing her sharp punches to his face.

"YOU FUCKING BETRAYED ME!" Vaas screamed up at her, finally delivering a head-butt to her forehead, while gripping her shirt collar still. This made Mickey go dizzy, giving him time to stand themselves up to fight properly. "THAT'S WHY HE STAYS ALIVE! THAT'S WHY HE WON'T FUCKING DIE!" He screamed some more. "YOU'RE FUCKING HIM, TOO, AREN'T YOU?!" He threw a jab into her face.

"You _wish _I was fucking someone else, asshole!" Mickey snapped out of her critical state of mind to shove him off of herself. When he backed up, Mickey now used her robotic fist, and tried delivering a good punch into his face. But, it was quickly blocked by his arm rising up to shield his face. The hit left a giant bruise on his arm, just inches closer into where she was able to break the bone inside.

Vaas became more furious, and Mickey became more frustrated, and they both went at each other like two caged dogs.

"Look! They're fighting!" A pirate couldn't help but cackled right at the lover's coil. "Look! They're fucking tearing each other apart!"

The pirates looked at the two pirate lords fighting, unsure if they should stop them, or let them continuing ripping each other apart.

Vaas' face smashed straight into the ground by Mickey's robotic hand holding the back of his head, but he quickly recovered by jabbing his elbow into her stomach, when she hovered over his back closely. He twisted to his back and threw her off, by using his feet to throw her off. When she was up, and holding her pained stomach, Vaas threw a punch, squared at her prosthetic eye.

The jab impacted hard enough to drive the metal eyeball inches deeper into Mickey's head.

"AAAHHHH!" Mickey screamed bloody murder, dropping down to one knee, and putting her hands over her face, now feeling the producing, long flow of a blood stream leaking out of her eye socket, from under her metal eyeball. Before she made another screech of pain, Vaas ran up to her and kicked her straight at the side of her bowing head, throwing her down to her side.

But, this did not stop her, somehow. The stabbing migraine shot right through Mickey's dazed head, but it made her react on, by jumping up to her feet and grabbing Vaas by the shoulders, backing him off enough with one step to throw another punch in his face with her robotic fist. She wasn't punching hard enough to crush his face plate. Just enough to make him also bruise deeply.

The two stumbled blindly, and in blundering confusion, closer, towards a steep hill's edge, unknowingly.

Before one of the on-looking pirates could tell them they're about to fall, they immediately went tumbling straight down together, and started rolling down the steep hill like two giant logs. The pirates ran to the edge of the steep hill to watched them get thrown and tossed around, as they went plummeting the rocky, grassy, and tree-branch infested hill.

They rolled fast, as they tumbled and crushed through-and-over rocks and broken branches, down onto another path of a flat, dirt road below. When they plummeted the bottom, they both let out yelps of pain, when they impacted the road on their sides too quickly, straining their arms from the plummet. They landed just feets away from each other, luckily in unreachable distances from planning to grab at each other once more.

Finally, they stopped their fighting for the moment, to lay on their backs, and pant hard from the ordeal.

Mickey's face was covered in whelps and purple-forming bruises. Her eye-socket that was stretched out by the impact on her prosthetic eye was still leaking blood, as much as she was also drooling it out from both corners of her lips. Her shoulders had large hand marks on them, indicating on how extremely rough Vaas grabbed at her.

Vaas' face was equally damaged. He had a black eye, whelps and forming bruises decorating his face. He also had thin streams of blood running from out his cracked mouth, down his busted lips. He knew he would have most likely died if Mickey had even thought of hardening her punches with her robotic hand, but he didn't care at the moment.

"... Fuck... you!" Mickey screamed at Vaas, through her ragged breathing. "... Fuck you and every pirate that looks like you!"

"Well, fuck you too, bitch!" Vaas screamed back loudly, turning over to his stomach and tried hard to pull himself up. But, the entire roll and crash down that steeped hill made him weak, and he couldn't pull himself up just yet. His strained arm wasn't responding so well. "I should have fucking _known_ you were the one helping that fucker!" He spat in bloody shame at her direction. "Of all people, I _never _expected _you _to turn your fucking back on me, goddammit!"

"I _didn't_ turn my back on you!" Mickey defended herself, also turning over to her stomach, but in a slow and steady pace, to look at Vaas. "I just wanted someone else to _not_ end up becoming as fucked up as _me_! I didn't want someone to tolerate the fucking idea of killing being _just-so-fucking_ terrific, in every way!" Mickey tried her best to pull herself up with her strong, prosthetic arm. "You know why I wanted to help?! Because I'm just so fucking _sane_! Un-fucking-like you!"

Vaas snarled, glaring right at Mickey. He spat blood from his mouth. "You're wrong, in every, fucking way, Mick!"

"Well, so are _you_, then!" She snapped back, now pulling herself up to her feet. "And, I'm fucking done with this drama!"

"Then, get the _fuck out of here_! I don't fucking need you!" Vaas slammed his fist onto the ground. "Just get the fuck out of my life!"

Mickey said nothing else to light anymore fuses for the heated, intense night. She took a deep breath and turned around, starting off to try walking away from Vaas' crumbled form. But, she kept stumbling on her feet, straggling and swearing to herself to a gash on her calve, due to a broken tree branch slicing through her flesh from the fall. She was still extremely dizzy from the punches as well, unable to keep up her form.

She only went ten steps, until she collapsed to the ground, in exhaustion.

The last thing she heard was Vaas... sobbing.

In her mind, something familiar Vaas told her, from the beginning, started to reel back into place.

_"You think friendship is magic now. Wait until we turn on each other." Vaas snapped his fingers. "Just like that! We'll become the greatest rivals of all fucking history. You won't care anymore, after that."_

**Vaas' moment of breaking down into a dozen of pieces, in his own demise. Inspired by Two Steps From Hell's song "False King". The song reminds me of a orchestrated, more intense, version of his own boss theme from Far Cry 3.**

**Does it mean that this is over for the love-line of Vaas and Mickey? Find out, in the next chapter...**


	25. The Suicide King

[The Worth Of It]

Just after the first day of that throw-down with Mickey and Vaas, both had not spoken to each other. But, that was needed to happen, for Vaas had now come down to the concluding end of his own plans going together wonderfully. The last thing he did in his shack was hidden something, in the depths of his stacking collection of useless DVD cases and film titles he couldn't remember watching or not.

After he hid the last item under the pile, he used his radio walkie-talkie to pick up Jackal's signal.

"Hey, man. I need to ask you a favor." Vaas spoke softly into the radio speaker, as if he were thinking hard on something on his mind.

"Yeah, yeah, sure." He heard Jackal's voice. He almost smiled a little. "What do you want?"

Vaas cleared his throat. "That grizzly bear territory not too far from my place... can you drive me down there?"

"Yeah, sure. No problem." Jackal responded back.

"Good." Vaas nodded his head to himself slowly. "Oh, and when you do, could you bring Lucipher and Ronnie with you?" He suddenly added in, most likely catching Jackal off, by surprise.

"Uh... yeah, sure, Vaas. Whatever." Jackal agreed, but obviously sounded unsure as he said yes.

"Good... I'll meet you soon." Vaas lastly said, before turning off his walkie-talkie, and set it right down on the table surface of his tattered-aged desk in his shack.

He was sitting silently, and very still, in the lone, wooden chair, for the longest time. Hands locked together gently, his left leg crossed over his right knee, and his eyes focusing abundantly hard on a giant poster map of his island. The spot he was staring at the most was the grizzly bear territory, that he marked repetitively with a simple, black marker, that was now unusable, but to the fact that Vaas crushed the tip of it down onto the located area on the map.

The only thing he was going was sitting there in the utmost silence, awaiting for his comrades to arrive.

After a whole ten minutes went by, Jackal and the others arrived in a small, armed vehicle. Vaas came outside from his shack, and was greeted by a giddy Ronnie and Lucipher. Vaas jumped into the passenger seat, while Jackal took the wheel, and started down the dirt road, towards the destination Vaas wanted to head out to.

During the short drive, Jackal couldn't help but glance over at Vaas once in a while. He noticed how Vaas' face looked extremely bruises, scraped and marked. He couldn't help but get the idea that Vaas was either mugged, or jumped by some Rakyat men earlier, and thought he either won, or lost. Whatever the result, Vaas still had the giant whelps on his face, decorating it with dark, ugly markings. Jackal even noticed that Vaas had a gash over the bridge of his nose, indicating that he was punched square in the nose perfectly by a lucky punch.

A few minutes of driving, and the four were finally at the grizzly bear territory entrance. Lucipher and Ronnie's eyes drew over to the large, manmade sign over the jungle path entrance that read "_Do not enter. Grizzly bear territory. You'll fucking die_." But didn't think so much of it to be a caution. More of a poke in the ribs.

Vaas and the other got out of the car, standing at the closed doors closely.

"Let me go in first." Vaas warned the others. "Just stay here for as long as you can."

Doing as Vaas warned them, they remained put at their spots, as they watched him make his way towards the territory entrance on his own. As they watched him go alone, they couldn't stop the nagging questions running through their minds, as to why Vaas wanted to go to the bear territory so much. If he wanted to cage a bear and use it as a defense mechanism, it would have to be more than one man alone to capture one. But, there was nothing else useful for a bear.

So, what was Vaas seriously wanting to do?

Standing right at the face of the opened entrance of the territory, Vaas stepped inside, and walked a few distances away from his only escape.

Once he was far enough inside, he stopped on his tracks, took out a gun from his hip holster, and ascended the gun barrel straight to the air, and shot three bullets.

He used a magnum revolver, so these three shots were extremely loud enough to deafen ear drums, and to echo out through the territory's invisible walls, and only exposed sky through the untrimmed trees blocking the partial view. The booming sounds of the bullets rung straight through the tree trunks, vibrating the ground under his feet, and alerting more than just his own ears to the sounds of shots being fired.

Outside by the car, Jackal, Lucipher and Ronnie heard the familiar, unwanted, alerting call of a mother grizzly bear's roar screaming out through the territory.

"Fuck." Jackal swore to himself, now hearing the increasing sounds of booming running throughout the jungle. Those stomping sounds were the exact noises of a charging grizzly bear wanting to attack. He knew them all too well. "Fuck! Fuck!"

Jackal's alarmed swearing caused the three men to start running over to the territory entrance of the place, and they caught a glimpse of Vaas merely standing there, before a giant black grizzly trampled him down with her large paws and claws.

The first thing they saw the bear do was latch its enormous, pearly whites down onto the lower jaw of Vaas' face, and tear it straight off. Blood spewed right out the ripped area of Vaas' newly torn face as he couldn't scream properly, without his lower jaw. He could only make panicking noises, as he thrashed underneath the bear's mighty weight.

The bear slammed its giant foot down onto Vaas' left-knee, snapping it right in half, after three more, powerful, agonizing stomps to his helpless leg.

Next, the bear latched its teeth down onto the bicep of Vaas' frigidity arm, and snapped his arm bone in half, being able to rip out the flesh into stretched out pieces of hanging skin. It ripped Vaas' arm off completely from the attached skin and muscle, and tossed it aside to save for later.

"Fuck!" Jackal screamed, pulling out his strapped machine gun from around his back. He barged into the territory and shouted, "Get the fuck away from him!" Before raining sharp bullets Hell onto the ferocious beast standing up on its two feet to let out another ear-piercing, spin-tingling roar of domination. The sharp bullets landed straight into the grizzly bears chest, making it go back down onto all four paws. Its left paw slammed down onto Vaas' chest, just close enough to crush it down.

"Vaas! Vaas!" Lucipher and Ronnie finally jumped in, also taking out their own sharp shooters to start gunning down the mother grizzly bear. "Go the fuck down!" Ronnie screamed, aiming straight for the grizzly bear's face. Lucipher shot multiple bullets right at the grizzly's legs, making it jump back with an overgrown snarl and growl, stepping back massively from Vaas' decreasing form.

The dozen shots to its face, and it finally went down without another budge.

All three went running to Vaas' aid, and were much more horrified by what they found of their pirate master.

[What Have You Done?]

"In this critical state, I'm surprised he's still breathing normally." Dynamite said, checking Vaas' pulse and breathing multiple times.

After the horrific ordeal, Jackal and the two youngsters took him straight to Dynamite, to try saving whatever was left of his deformed, salvageable remains.

With Eyes as his chemist, Dynamite had a new liquid shot of a blood stopper. It didn't stop blood entirely, but it slowed it down just enough to make the profuse bleeding stop from anywhere on the body, once the medicine were injected into the body itself. This also had massive side effects of slowing down Vaas' breathing, heart-beatings, and his process of thinking clearly, as he laid motionless on the metal bed in Dynamite's hidden base.

All the pirate lords were there, being called in to witness Vaas' withering, new form. Mickey arrived there as well, being shown the sights of Vaas she thought she'd never see him in, in years, or maybe in another life.

Vaas' mangled form made him look like... a true monster.

"Vaas' lower-jaw has been ripped right off of his face, and its unsalvageable to even reattach." Dynamite said, as he got out a sketch notebook to start illustrating something out. He made a quick sketch of Vaas' profile. He started drawing out his missing jaw.

Then, he flipped over to an empty page and started sketching out his entire body form.

"His right-arm has been bitten through, and is most likely unsalvageable to reattach as well. The bears most likely are eating it by now." Dynamite glanced at Vaas' swollen knee and leg. "His leg has been snapped in half, and the bone inside has been crushed, due to the bear's weight. I will have to amputate his entire leg, no question."

And finally, Dynamite stepped over to Vaas' comatose side to put a hand on his chest. "Hmm... seems as if the grizzly bear put some major effort into trying to crush Vaas' chest in, to kill him instantly. Luckily, his chest is still salvageable, but he'll have breathing problems for a long while now, until I can try pulling out his chest again. It pushed in too close to his organs at the moment."

The pirate lords heard every word, while Dynamite sketched out Vaas' body and face in his sketch book. They were all silent and completely awe-struck by what Vaas did to himself at the bear's territory. They were either still in deep confusion of what Vaas was thinking, or just unable to seriously put out any emotion of what they thought, considering that they were in utmost shock of his ordeal.

"So," Dynamite spoke up again, after a long, awkward silence filled the room, that he needed to break. "This procedure is going to take me... and entire month." He calculated in his head. The results shocked the pirates even more. "Eyes will be my assistant for the operation. We're getting new shipment of prosthetic body-parts coming in soon, so the new equipment will be used for Vaas' entire procedure." Dynamite then looked at every dead in the eye. "I want absolutely _no one _bothering us during this entire month. Understand?" He said sharply.

The pirate lords nodded firmly, with the following, "Yes."

"Get out." He shooed them out of the base. "Get out. And, don't come back until the eighth of next month. Is that amply clear to you?"

[What Were You Thinking?]

_It's all my fault. _Mickey sobbed to herself quietly, hiding herself upon the rooftop of her shack.

The rooftop was old and worn-down by tropical weathers, but, still sturdy enough to hold her weight alone.

She wrapped her arms around her legs, hugging them close to her chest, while hiding her face on her knees. All she could think of was Vaas' state of well-being, when she last saw him in that base with Dynamite. _I don't understand! Vaas, this isn't like you, at all! _Mickey screamed in her head, rocking her body back and forth slightly, with her mind in pieces, trying hard to put it all back together.

Mickey was right about that. Vaas going out to kill himself in such a way was nothing like his dark personality. He would have likely shot himself in the head once more, if he felt so suicidal to end his own life. Going out into the arms of blood-thirsty grizzly bears was something unthinkable of himself to do.

"_Mickey_!" Inside the shack, Mickey's radio walkie-talkie was screaming out in statics and a familiar voice on the other line. "_Mickey, answer this call, at once._"

Mickey climbed down into her window and jumped inside her place. The radio walkie-talkie was sitting on her vanity. The voice on the other line was not Jason, though. She hadn't heard from him, since he went to go rescue Keith. Instead, it sounded like Dynamite.

"Hello?" Mickey picked up the walkie-talkie to respond, pressing down the call button.

"_You need to go visit Vaas' shack._" Dynamite immediately instructed, confusing Mickey. "_He told me right now that you need to go to his place, right at this moment._"

Mickey's eyes widened. "I-Is Vaas talking?!"

"_No. He's only mobile in his good arm, so he's writing down instructions to follow on a notebook. Right now, he's writing that you should go to his place._"

"I want to see him!" Mickey immediately declared, marching out of her shack. "Can't I see him?"

"_Still a no, milady._" Dynamite sounded annoyed on the other line. She could also hear the rapid scratching sounds of a pen scribbling down fast onto paper. Was that Vaas? "_Just do what Vaas is instructing, and get to his shack. Once you get there, signal me back. We'll discuss more then._"

Mickey, as her heart sunk to the decline of being able to speak to Vaas, did as what Dynamite said, and started off to Vaas' shack. It was five miles far from Mickey's place, but she didn't mind the walking she had to do. Just the thought of Vaas hiding something for her to find was something incredible, and out of his own character, even more.

After a long while of walking, Mickey approached Vaas' shack, seeing that it was left untouched from any pirates presence, or anyone else's.

Inside, the shack was dark, and clamored with endless stacks of DVD cases, weapons, magazines of celebrity stories or gossip, and a giant television set in the back. Beside the set, there was dozens of different DVD players, VHS players, CD players, video game consoles, and whatever else electronically connected to the television set.

Even with that, the intense smell of mothballs and joss sticks hit Mickey's nostrils with familiarity and Vaas' original musk.

The windows were shut tight with iron screwed into the walls, and it was pitch black. Whatever Vaas was hiding, it was the utmost importance to keep it sealed off.

Mickey took the radio walkie-talkie from her belt strap and signaled Dynamite once more.

"I'm here. What's the big deal, Dynamite?" Mickey asked, stepping inside the shack.

"_From what Vaas is telling me... You must find something hidden underneath a pile of DVD cases. He says you might know which one he's talking about._"

Mickey took a look-around the shack room, and spotted a familiar stack of DVD cases, out of the rest of the others clamoring the room.

This particular stack of film titles was his personal mother-load of all the horror and action films he collected for the past two years. Most of the film titles starred popular actors, such as Clint Eastwood, Anthony Hopkins, Johnny Depp, Brad Pitt, Tom Cruise and whoever else was an aspiring figure in the horror-and-action movie history stream.

"I've got a clue." Mickey softly said into the walkie-talkie speaker lastly, before strapping it back to her belt to start digging under the DVD collection.

Underneath the dozens of DVD cases and film titles, Mickey finally came across a hidden, metal box. The box was small, that looked as if it were unbreakable. There was a keyhole in the middle of the closed box's mouth, indicating that it would only open with a key, instead of a combination. The metal shined lightly in the dark, and it was cold from sitting in the shadows for too long.

Mickey brought back the radio walkie-talkie to her lips. "Dynamite, I found something interesting in a pile of DVD cases. Its a metal box, with a lock on it."

On Dynamite's end, Mickey could suddenly hear a commotion of something making loud noises of something struggling. "_Vaas_! _Calm down, dammit_!" Dynamite shouted at Vaas, with the sounds of what was Dynamite trying to restrain Vaas from falling out of the stretcher. "_Eyes, give him another supine-shot. I'm still speaking to Mickey._" After a moment of silence, Dynamite came back. "_Vaas' next instructions are to retrieve a key to that box. He wrote that it should be hidden in his shack still. The only hint he gave me for its location is Western drama. I'm supposing a movie case, but he didn't specify on which one._"

"Oh!" Mickey's mind clicked. "I know exactly which one he's talking about!"

Mickey went through the DVD case pile again, and eventually found a film title called "The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly", starring Clint Eastwood. Out of all Clint Eastwood films, this particular one was Vaas' treasured favorite. Mostly because he thought Eastwood was a complete "badass" in this certain film.

Inside the case, the DVD was there, and so was a silver key.

"I found a silver key!" Mickey screeched into the radio walkie-talkie, most likely blowing out Dynamite's hearing.

"_Oh-fucking-kay_!" Dynamite shouted back. "_Get to Vaas' convoy, nearby that strip joint. You remember the convoy, yeah_?_ The one with a dozen television sets inside_?" He asked, while a clicking, metallic sound was going on in the background. It sounded like scissors being used.

"Yeah, yeah. I remember." Mickey nodded her head.

"_Good. Now, grab all the pirate lords and Vaas' crew to get them together at that convoy. Bring that box with you. Vaas says everything you need is in there._"

[The Kingly Ploy]

The convoy was a giant metal room, full of pipes decorating the walls, and chain-linked fences. The interior reminded most of a small warehouse, actually.

As Dynamite described earlier, the metallic room was cluttered with dozens of television sets stacked everywhere. There was a tall stack of television sets sitting in the midst of the room, all portraying a giant screen all together. Smaller television sets were overhead as well, behind another chain-linked ceiling, that were being held up with iron chains. They were all running with static quietly humming in the room.

"What're we doing here?" Jackal looked around the convoy, not impressed with the dozen of television sets collected in one room.

"Vaas had something planned for us." Mickey answered, walking up to the stacks of television sets, with the metal box in her hands. "He said this box had everything we needed to use, while he was gone."

"Is it a present?!" Ronnie couldn't help but cheer, standing closely to Mickey's side to overlook the metal box.

"It's... something." Mickey didn't know what could be inside the box. But, at that moment, they were going to find out.

The convoy was not large enough for Vaas' pirate crew to fit indoors. Some piled into the convoy room, while some had to stand outside, and overhear everything through the booming speakers of the dozen-television sets.

Mickey reached into her pocket and brought out the silver key. She inserted the key into the box and unlocked it with a clicking sound. When the surface popped open, the pirate lords and pirates gathered right behind Mickey's back to look down at what was inside. They were clamored right behind her, like a pile of cubs stacking on top of each other, waiting for whatever to happen next.

Inside the box, there was a treasure trove of cassette tapes, VHS tapes and more folded-up papers inside. One particular tape sat on top of the rest, that read "One".

"Let's pop this one into the player." Mickey took the first VHS tape and walked over to the lone VHS player, on top of the stacked television sets. When she inserted the tape into the player, it processed it, and the screens immediately showed an image of Vaas' face.

"_Surprise, surprise_."

**"_Waiting, as I'm wanting to. Speaking, as I'm spoken to. Changing, to your point of view. Fading, as I follow you. A boyish notion, a fail emotion, these words are spoken, despite my love. A fool's devotion was set in motion. My eyes are open now!_" ( - The Birthday Massacre).**

**More to come, in the nexty-next chapter. Derp-a-herp.**


	26. I Will Have My Vengeance

_Click... Click... Recording..._

Surprise, surprise. Guess who the fuck it is? It's Vaas Montenegro!

Why the fuck are you watching me on a fucking screen, you're wondering? Well, it's complicated, of course, but just shut the fuck up for as long as you can, sit down, and listen to my beautiful voice explaining everything in alphabetical order, okay?

For starters, I just want to say that if you're watching this, and I'm miraculously fucking dead, well... you might as well stop this fucking tape. It would be pointless. _But_! If I'm alive, and most likely in Dynamite's base being repaired, then _don't_ fucking stop watching this. This tape is going to be everything you guys will need to follow, while I'm gone. You could think of it as a message from my near-death experience! Woohoo!

Anyhow... if you're still watching, then listen up, and listen _very_ good.

My sister, Citra, is obviously planning to send out her new bitch, Jason Brody, to come and raid this camp into hunting me down. It's her last act of charity, so that she can get rid of me, and finally become the fucking Rakyat Tribe's leader that she and I have been debating to claim for ions.

I mean, Jason's got the fucking tatau, so he's fucking capable into raiding this fucker like a rabid beast. He only wants to get back at me for killing his brother, kidnapping his stupid friends, and hiding his little brother. I don't personally give a fuck for family, but, I like friends. And you guys are what's fucking left to be friends... So, don't let me down. I especially want all pirate lords to be careful, if they ever encounter that Brody fuck. Don't get in the midst of his grounds. Just hide, while doing the plan.

What's the fucking plan, you're wondering? Well, to make it simple:

If Citra wanted to puss out last time by staging a coup, then... I can play the same, fucking game.

But, this coup is going to be done all manually. It probably got me close to killing myself, but, it's what part of the plan.

Citra will think that I'm dead, when Jason comes in to raid the camp, to find me. I had to do my part and tear myself up pretty, fucking brutally, in order to get the stupid fuckers, Rakyat, to wholly believe in the ideal that I've died, and did not live one more day.

Dynamite is probably not there with you right now, because he's mending to me. Don't be surprised by this. He's actually the _only person _I plotted this coup with. He just kept his mouth shut until the plan went out as we thought it out to be.

So, you're wondering... In order for the Rakyat to believe I'm dead, I _had_ to throw myself into the arms of a _mother grizzly_ and tear myself up?

Hell fucking yeah, I did.

Rakyat won't believe in the simple rumor of an enemy's death by ears. If they want full proof, then they need to see the remains.

I know, I know. I could have done something abundantly simple, and shot myself a few times, or fucking stabbed myself in the chest or something. But, that's not even close to good enough. I had to mangle myself up, to the point of where I look like I'm a fucking piece of shit to their eyes. I have to look like I'm not going to take another breath or move another muscle. I have to actually _demonstrate _the definition of a brutal death.

But, during this time that Jason and Citra are plotting to raid the camp, I need these certain people to do their tasks for me. The tasks include the other tapes I made.

I want Lucipher and Ronnie to be in control of the recorded VHS tape and voice recordings I made. These recordings are packed with messages for Jason to hear, when he sneaks into the camp. He'll most likely enter this convoy, when he tries sneaking in, like a fucking asshole. When he enters, play this VHS tape on the stacked television sets. It'll give a little rant on how fucking disappointed I am in him, and how he's a fucking rat to Citra. When the tape plays, ignite a fire inside the convoy.

If he escapes out on the roof of this place, start playing voice recordings on the speakers outside on the camp base. Just a little more rants and raving I threw in, to rile Jason up into going for my ass inside that huge-ass warehouse at the front of this area. Remember the one, with the eye-graffiti, on the double iron doors? That one.

I know how fucking much you two like making people mad, so this'll be a show for you.

As for my two best crew members, I need you to get ammunition from Dynamite. He forged out some special bullets for you to use on Jason, if he attacks. These bullets are jammed-packed with a drug-liquid inside, that is suppose to make Jason hallucinate greatly. Hide inside the warehouse, until he's close enough. When he is, come outside, and start shooting him with these drug-infested bullets. Most likely he's going to have a drug-ride of his pathetic, fucking life...

Jackal, my main man. It's your turn!

When Jason gets into that huge-ass warehouse, I want _you_ to be hiding inside. You're going to be using a knife coated with the same liquid-drug on Jason, so make this one, fucking hit count. I trust you can do it, because you knifed me and other fuckers pretty, fucking good your whole life on this island. Jason's hallucinations from the gunshots will make him think _you'll_ look just like _me_. The drugs are most likely bath salts or something wicked, so he'll be having a hallucination party going on in his head! Haha!

Whatever will make him thrown into a fucked-up fantasy world after he collapses, I don't know. But, he _will _wake up thinking he killed me.

The Rakyat won't have a clue that a bear attacked me. Dynamite's a fucking expert into manipulating the wounds from animalistic attacks into human attacks. Right now, he's probably manipulating my wounds, and whatever the fuck else happened to me, to make it seem like that Jason Brody fucker tore me up pretty fucking good. Enough to fool them, and leave me be.

If that goes into play, Dynamite knows what to do next. After he's done the preparations on my body, he'll get one of my crew members to go find Dennis, and bring him as a messenger for Citra to look at my remains. I _know _Citra's too fucking chicken-shit to come into this side of the island herself and inspect my body, so she'll send Dennis, or some other piece of shit to check me out.

If I'm fucking mangled up as I imagine to be, then they'll buy the whole idea that I'm fucking dead. I'll likely look dead, but, you know what's the scary part? ... I'm _not_.

After this plan goes without a hitch, Jason is going to ignore me, and go for Hoyt. I honestly have no survival plan for that fucker, but who cares, right?

Don't you worry your pretty little heads now. I'm going to be back, pretty, fucking soon. My arrival is going to be fucking nigh...

Okay. That's the fucking plan. Now, _get the fuck out_ and do what I said.

But... not _you_, Mickey. I've got something to tell you.

_Click... Click... End recording..._

_Second tape inserted._

_Click... Click... Recording..._

Mickey... Mi bambina. Mi chica. Mi madama. Amiga... Mi todo... Mi cariño!

When we fucking met two years ago, when you were discovered by Hoyt, I honestly hated you from the start. I thought you would be a clumsy fool that just got lucky to get Hoyt's good graces. Not to mention, ever since you got the idea of me being nothing but a dick, you were starting to become my number one enemy, because every time we saw each other, all we did was just fucking fight and argue.

But, since that time you came to rescue me from those pack of tourists about to gun me down, I started to become... I don't know... Crazy, for you?

Heh-heh... _Crazy_...

I started to fucking fall in love, when I saved you that time from the jaguar attack. I think I felt it, when I picked you up in my arms, and carried you all the way to that crazy Doctor's place. I just really fell an affection in my chest when your arms were wrapped around me, while I carried you all the way there... I felt like you really needed me at that point, and... I've never felt seriously needed before, by anyone.

The emotions started to burst when the crazy Doctor told me to leave you be, to rest. You wouldn't unwrap your arms from me, even when I laid you down on the stretcher bed. You kept crying over the idea that the same jaguar would come back and finish you off, so you wanted me to stay put, and guard you.

... Shit! I sound so fucking sensible right now... Doesn't seem like me, at all, huh? I bet you're thinking that, chica.

But, the more I tried to fight the feelings away, the more I just became crazier for you. Even insane...

Hey. Want me to be truthful? That night, when we got drunk and had sex... I _wasn't very_ drunk.

I knew exactly what I was doing, actually. And, what I was doing was trying to get you turned on, so we could stop all the fucking pretending, and just get you to simply be mine. It worked... but you're more mad at me, right now, right? Sorry.

... ... ...

Mickey. I _knew_ you were helping that Brody guy. Call it a hunch, I suppose?

I knew you were helping him, when you weren't talking to me for a couple of days when he was on the island...

And you know what? ... _I forgive you_.

Why did I beat the shit out of you, though? Well, neither of us probably won that fight to call it a win. Just throwing it out there.

But, I was just _so_ fucking... _jealous_.

I know you did nothing with him. I _know you_ like that, girly! You wouldn't fuck another guy, if you already got one. You're loyal, which is what I like. Loyalty.

But, the thoughts of Jason just stepping inside your place and _talking _to you. Checking you out. Planning with you. He probably patted you on the shoulder, which shouldn't be such a big deal... But, to me,_ it is_.

Call me cantankerous and petulant all you want, but, Jason shouldn't fucking think of talking to _my girl_.

If he even tried to do something with you, or tried hinting on little ideas to go on with you, I'm going to come back from that base and rip him a new one. I'm going to pull his entire body inside-out and feed him to the pet tigers in our camp. I'm going to rip off his fucking head and stick it onto a stake, right at the front of the camp entrance. That white bastard wouldn't know how fucking pissed an obsessed boyfriend would get, when he knows his girl is being flirted with...

... ... ...

... You likely don't give a fuck about Brody any longer. You still probably hate my fucking guts for beating you up, though...

You want a freebie punch, when I get out of the base? I won't care where you punch me. I won't even care if I just got out of operation. I want to make it square with you, is all... I think I fucked you up badly. You probably fucked me up too much, with that prosthetic arm of yours. Heh...

I'm sorry that I wasn't there those couple of days with you. I was fucking wrapped up in the entire coup and recordings I was making. You didn't think I was obsessively thinking of you, was I? Infatuated by your every thought in my mind? Those aren't really attractive words to say, but, it's what I feel, _all_ the time... And they're definitely _not_ docile, believe me. I'm trying not to make them sound like that.

But, don't you worry about me. I'm coming back, very soon. _Extremely_ soon.

And we're going to make a fucking utopia out of this war!

**This force is in love with you! It wants you safe. It wants you well. This force knows what you can do! What you can make, with your tattered-self. You will see me now... This is our world now!**

***Creeper grin.* ****... _Heh heh heh heh_... Vaas, in Dynamite's operation, getting new body parts, can only mean one thing.**

**Still not completed. More to come soon! *More creeper faces.***


	27. All The Lies Tied Together Perfectly

The entire ploy was exactly as Vaas planned it out. Everything was going just as easy as the steps were being blindly taken by their number one problem for the moment of the harried island, Jason Brody.

Jason did exactly what Vaas predicted him to do. He snuck straight into the camp ground of their base, and searched for Vaas' whereabouts. At that moment when Jason forced open that iron door to the convoy, was the warning sound for Luicpher and Ronnie to start to react.

When Jason ascended the short steps into the convoy, he was startled by the stacks of television sets suddenly changing out of black screens, and now into showing Vaas' own face on the screens.

"_Surprise, motherfucker_!"

Vaas hissed on screen, before the convoy was suddenly lit on fire from the interior, without Jason catching the glimpse of Lucipher and Ronnie lighting up the place with matches. The convoy itself was coated with kerosene, easily being lit up with the dozens of matches being ignited, as Lucipher and Ronnie hid at the top of the convoy's rooftop to throw down lit matches down into the interior, watching in awe as how fast the place was sparking orange and blue fire.

As Jason desperately tried finding a way out of the burning convoy, he could still hear Vaas' voice screaming at him, through the television sets that were in other, different rooms. When Jason was closing into the one room that had a ladder leading up to the convoy's rooftop, Lucipher and Ronnie were already gone.

They left the rooftop early, so that they could find their hidden radio house to start playing the rest of Vaas' voice recordings.

Once Jason climbed up to the top of the ladder, Vaas' recorded voice could be heard shouting at the other pirates,

"_I'll pay ten grand, for the first motherfucker that gets me Jason Brody's nutsack_!"

Lucipher and Ronnie were inside the large warehouse, playing these recordings onto a microphone that boomed straight out of speakers linked to the exterior of the warehouse, for the other pirates to hear, and Jason as well. The command from Vaas' voice riled up the pirates to start reigning Hell on Jason Brody, shooting at him with what heavily armed weapon they had on themselves.

"_Oh, Jason, Jason, Jason... You come to fuck with me, in MY OWN house_!_ For a bitch_!_ For Citra_!"

Gunshots fired, Jason fought back. The outside was a quick-time Hell.

"_Don't worry, hermano_!_ Don't worry_!_ I don't like my family, either_!_ But, when you meet me, okay? When you meet me... you better thank me. Because I'm going to free your friggin' soul_!"

As Jason took down the pirates outside, he approached the double doors of the warehouse. This set off the time for the two crew members inside to make their exit, and start shooting at Jason with rifles. The rifles were normal to the eye, but the specialized bullets inside that Dynamite delivered their way, were packed inside the magazine, now being spewed out at Jason's body without missing a shot.

The crew members managed to shoot five bullets into his body, before they were immediately killed by a thrown grenade from Jason.

"_Jason, look at you. I mean, look at you_! _Stupid, motherfucking white-boy_!_ You come here, into MY jungle, and you think you're a fucking warrior_?!_ You think you know what it takes, to fucking kill_?!"

Jason raced into the warehouse, screaming Vaas' name twice.

"Vaas! Where are you?! Come out, and face me!" Jason shouted, once inside the warehouse.

While he searched one room on his right for Vaas, Jackal was awaiting for his turn. Watching him from a hidden area, just in front of the double doors, he could see the effects of the bullets taking full control of Jason's persona. He watched as the young man was becoming heavily delirious in the head, and saw his Jason's eyes were trying hard to focus, from the way he rubbed and squinted his quickly-tiring eyes.

Jackal silently tipped-toed out of hiding, when he saw Jason go for a second room on his left. He quickly unsheathed the drug-coated knife out from his hip holster and snuck up behind Jason.

"Peek-a-boo, motherfucker."

Was the last thing Jason heard, before he turned around and saw "Vaas" plunge the knife straight into the midst of his chest, with a hard thrust.

The drug coated onto the blade immediately seeped into Jason's system, taking over his body. Jason, now more delirious and unfocused, managed to slowly pull the blade right out of his chest, before he collapsed onto the ground. The last thing he saw was "Vaas" walking away, before he drifted off into darkness.

[The Dynamic Visit]

"Let 'em through! Open the gate!" Jackal hollered out to his brute men, as they guarded the entrance to the secret base of Dynamite's hideout.

The people allowed to have access into Dynamite's lair was Dennis, and two Rakyat men guarding him. After Jason was found unconscious in that warehouse, he could utter out lightly that Vaas was dead. He told them that he ripped him apart with the ancient knife, but, Vaas' body was nowhere to be found in that warehouse Jason was in.

The Rakyat were about to call it a bluff, when Dynamite somehow contacted Dennis on radio signal. He said he wanted to speak to him about Vaas' death.

Dennis and his men walked straight through an ordered battalion of Jackal's brutish men that looked back at them with daggers in their eyes. But, they were ordered to stand down, and make no sudden moves on the Rakyat men passing them.

Dynamite's secret base of operating and experimenting was opposite from his normal warehouse. This base was a more larger hideout, just nearby the reefs of the beach and jungle region. It was hidden behind a family of tall, over-aged jungle trees and brush. It wouldn't be so completely difficult for a helicopter or fighter jet to spot on its own, in the sky. It was a massive structure of steel, hardened exterior walls holding up the entire base. The double-doors were made of heavy iron, and there was not a single window on any of the four walls of that building.

It looked like it could have been a scientists dream house, of mutilating and operating on human beings. In this case, Dynamite's dream house.

Dennis approached the double iron doors of the building, pounding on the door as hard as he could, for anyone indoors to hear him.

"Who is it?" Dynamite shouted from the other side.

"It's Dennis. You called me." Dennis responded back.

"... Come inside. Mind the latch." Dynamite lastly said, before the sound of heavy, automatic locks barricading the doors shut started to open up by themselves. The sound of metal screeched, and the hissing noises of the safety measures being unlocked sighed out. It was a whole ten seconds of the automatic locks unlocking themselves, before the double doors finally opened up to the inside by themselves.

Inside, a shot of extremely cold air hit the Rakyats' faces hard. It wasn't something very unusual for the base to be this cold, but for islanders that hadn't experienced the cold this much was something shockingly new, and frightening.

They stepped into the cold base, noticing how dimmed of lighting it was indoors. It was only lit lightly with the ceiling lights shining blue, florescent bulbs and whatnot. This base has never experienced the sunlight in ions.

"I suppose I shouldn't make you three wait for my long speech?" Dynamite asked, after turning off his radio walkie-talkie. He was standing at a hall's doorway, just across the large room the Rakyat men stepped into.

"What speech?" Dennis asked, feeling almost intimidated by the first sight of Dynamite. He's never met him before, and was taken back by the mere sight of the pirate's secondary scientist of being... a kid.

Dynamite gestured his hand to the hallway, indicating for the Rakyat men to follow him.

Walking down the hallway, it was still the same, lowered temperature of a freezing drop. One of the Rakyat men following behind Dennis couldn't help but point out at how short and young Dynamite looked. The other guard described Dynamite to look like a teenager. Which they were only right about.

Dynamite just turned seventeen, that day...

The floor of the hallway was also made entirely of metal, and the constant sounds of Dynamite's feet made abnormal noises of clanking. Dennis looked down to Dynamite's feet, finally noticing the prosthetic legs under his knees. He didn't notice that they were attached to him before, because they looked like iron boots from afar.

"Your legs..." Dennis spoke up. "... Are you human?"

Dynamite couldn't help but chuckle aloud. "Yes, yes. I am." He looked over his shoulder at the Rakyat men, while still walking. "I had these legs ever since I first arrived to this island, four years ago. Nothing spectacular to note, I assure you." He lied, giving a shrug of his shoulders.

Dennis decided to ignore it then.

The two walked for a good, long minute, before a door ahead automatically slid open by itself, to Dynamite presence.

When the door opened, it reveal what was inside the hidden room.

Inside the room, it was clamored with injured pirate men, taking up all the iron flat beds. They grunted out, groaning in pain, or still hissed to the agonizing stinging sensation of bullets lodged into their sides or shoulders. Dynamite and the Rakyat men stepped into the room, not drawing attention to the self-centered men at the moment. Dennis and the two guards looked on at the injured pirates, not knowing what to think of their success on damaging the pirates of Vaas' crew.

"They are not what I want you to see." Dynamite reminded the three, older men. "I want you to see someone else. Something very special."

The four walked across the large room of shouting and sneering pirates in pain, and approached a different door, that also opened automatically as the last one did.

In this next room, it was dumbed down to absolute silence in that dimly lit room. The only source of moving was from Dynamite's right-hand man, Eyes, who was standing at a table of surgical equipment, back facing them. He seemed to have been looking for something.

Dynamite guided the men over to the lone iron stretcher in the room, showing Vaas' entirely deformed figure.

When one of the guards got close enough, to see that it was Vaas' disfigured body, he was almost ready to scream out in utter fright to what was before him.

"Vaas is dead." Dynamite simply answered to the stunned Rakyat men. "As you see, for yourselves..."

Dennis was the only one brave enough to step close to Vaas' dismantled body, and gave a good look to his face and limbs.

"Vaas was dismantled greatly by a brutal attack with that Jason Brody man." Dynamite started lying straight through his teeth, with false epitomes. "The bone to Vaas' right-arm was snapped in half, and was given chance for Jason to use his knife to cut straight through the flesh and tear it off." Dynamite put his hand over Vaas' armless shoulder, patting it roughly. "His left-leg also suffered the same results. Jason cut it straight off of his torso."

And then, Dynamite put his hand over Vaas' chest, resting his palm there.

"Vaas' chest plate was shoved straight into his organs. As you can tell for yourselves, this would have likely made him suffocate from breathing." Dynamite eyed all three of the Rakyat men. "Well? Would you like to tell for yourselves?" He asked them sharply. He patted his hand over Vaas' chest. "Feel the broken chest plate!"

"N-No...!" One of the guards backed off. "... I see enough proof."

"Dennis?" Dynamite looked up to Dennis. "Would you kindly?"

"No!" Dennis also declined. "It's proof he's as good as dead, okay?!"

"Oh, not yet." Dynamite stopped him quickly, with a hand raised up. "There's one more, obvious spot I wanted to point out to you."

"Please... don't..." One of the guards put his hand over his eyes, not wanting to look more.

Dynamite now gestured to Vaas' face. "His jaw was ripped straight off of his face, with tremendous force. I don't know what you feed that Jason Brody guy, but, it's caused him to rip off Vaas' face, partially." It sounded like Dynamite was trying to joke, but he seriously wasn't. "The skin ripping off with his jaw traveled down from Vaas' throat and down to the collarbone." Dynamite sighed heavily. "With my own skills... I couldn't save him." He lied.

The Rakyat men stood there, silently staring at Vaas now.

"Want a picture? It'll last longer." Dynamite hissed at the awe-struck men. "You've taken his life. How are you so shocked of this?"

"... We thought we... would never see his dead body, physically..." Dennis murmured out quietly.

"Psh." Dynamite scoffed. "Well, _here_ you have it. Vaas is _dead_. You've allocated to this point of your damned success. That fucking Jason Brody has Citra's favors now. You've only Hoyt to worry your heads over. Is that fucking _magical_?" Dynamite sounded like he wanted to kill Dennis and the two guards right on the spot, with more cruel comments and deathly glares. "You took Vaas' life, as you did to Mickey."

This made Dennis raise his eyebrows. "... She's dead?"

"Yeah." Dynamite rolled his eyes. "She gave those two fuckers of yours a good thrown-down, before she had to escape on her own. The walk back to the camp, from your shithole, was too far for her, and she was bleeding profusely from a large wound in her hand. We found her dead on the road later on, in the day. She was dead already, of massive blood loss."

Dennis now looked straight at Dynamite. He could help but notice a sudden shadow of something completely new on Dynamite's face. He saw something... haunted. Dynamite's eyes were pitch black with lost thoughts, and anger. Dynamite wasn't giving glares any longer, but, that irritatingly dark cloud over him still lingered high, as his eyes were the black ground, after a storm.

Yes. He looked absolutely haunted.

"... What will you do with his body?" Dennis asked Dynamite.

Dynamite shifted his eyes down to Vaas' mangled face and shrugged heavily. "I cannot save him. I might as well give him a proper burial." Dynamite patted Vaas' immobile shoulder. "I don't usually do these things, but, Vaas was a good friend of mine... And a watery grave sounds about right."

"Fine. I don't care." Dennis said, finally backing off from Vaas' side. "He's dead. He's gone. He's disappeared. I've seen enough."

Dynamite watched the men step back a few more steps. "Then go tell that _inane-whore_ of a leader the news." Dynamite folded his arms, staring right at the men. "Tell her."

Before Dennis could retort on that comment, Eyes approached Dynamite, saying something to him in another foreign language unfamiliar to the Rakyat men.

"Yes." Dynamite nodded his head to Eyes. "You might as well go now. We're taking up too much time away from the neglected pirates." Dynamite nodded over to Dennis. "I don't want these men to die, at least..."

Dennis and his guards started walking out the direction they came through to the base. While they left, Dynamite and Eyes started mending to the groaning pirate men.

"He's... a fucking mess." One of the Rakyat guards said to the other. "Who the fuck was that, I said to myself... I couldn't even _tell_ if it was Vaas."

"I know. I know." The Rakyat guard waved off the other one. "Just give me a fucking minute here... I think I'm going to puke..."

Dennis was silent through their walk out of the base. He couldn't get that full image of Vaas' twisted body out of his head. It was something entirely new for killers, as themselves, to see. It was something unforgettable. Something he thought Jason would never do to another human being. He started to think if that tatau he was given was granting him _too much _strength in his body.

The iron doors to the base slid open loudly, pouring in the blinding lights of the outside world right at their faces. Blinding them for a mid-second, before their vision came back to focus, and they walked straight out of the base, with the screeching, metallic sounds of the doors closing back up, and being automatically locked up tight.

Once they were gone, the pirates stopped their obsessive sounds of agony and got up from the stretchers, talking normally and gawking on, like nothing happened. They were faking the entire act of agonizing pain the entire visit from the Rakyat men. They had thought it up themselves, merely to throw in the good measures of making their enemies wholly believing in the ideal that they has "succeeded".

Dynamite looked over to the other room Vaas' body was in.

Vaas was not dead. He was actually under another sleeping spell of the supine-shot given to him for a third time. The shot reduced heavy breathing, slowed blood flow, and immobility. This was something entirely created out of chemistry, by Eyes.

"Now that distraction is pushed aside... Shall we begin?" Dynamite asked Eyes.

**"_The fading flowers, the passing hours. They fall, like sand through the fingers. There's a fire, in the city of pictures, leaving nothing, but ashes below. It's only forever, for a day. Tomorrow is burning away... Burn away_." (- The Birthday Massacre's "Burn Away".)**

**Still much, much more to arrive!**


	28. Vaas In Wonderland

"Extract the upper-row of his teeth. They won't do, with his new jaw." Dynamite spoke to Eyes, handing him over a plier. "Human teeth may not go well with metallic ones."

"Could you also hand me that lidocaine-shot? He'll need a heavy dose of this." Eyes asked politely, before being given a syringe-gun, full of the lidocaine, from Dynamite.

Now, with the utmost silence in the operating room, except for the soft sounds of orchestra music playing in the background from an old radio, Dynamite and Eyes were first working on Vaas' face, where the missing lower-jaw was.

After the shipment of body parts came into their order, Dynamite finished manipulating these metallic body parts into Vaas' ideal facial sizes and limb sizes. Of course, courtesy of Japan to send in the advanced-body parts of Dynamite's Capitalism, these parts were far from original, modern-day equipment.

"We'll have to do some ample work to make this jaw mobile for him to speak properly." Eyes instructed, as it took a long, good look at the metallic jaw in his hands. He made a light chuckle. "This jaw reminds me of that new Metal Gear video game."

"Pff." Dynamite huffed, with a smirk. "Yeah, well, that's the whole reason why I said you should extract his upper-row of teeth."

"Oh. Do you have the excess-skin for his throat and collarbone?" Eyes suddenly remembered.

"Yes, yes. I'm going to apply it right now." Dynamite said, while strapping on long, leather gloves onto his hands. "This won't take long. Just mend to his amputated leg in the mean time, yeah." Dynamite ordered, while taking out the new, excess-skin from a water-filled contained, carefully, and started apply the surgical skin on Vaas' exposed-flesh neck and collarbone parts. "I'm going to need that heater tool, and some of that dissolving sewing strings..."

Eyes then remember another topic. "Any luck on Vaas' missing arm in that grizzly bear territory?"

Again, Dynamite made a laugh. "The bears got to it. All the pirates found were the skeleton of it."

"Shit." Eyes laughed. "Aw, well. You snooze, you lose. I'm going to see if that new leg matches up to his body structure." Eyes left the side of Vaas' operating bed to go find the new leg in the storage room, in the back of the operating room.

Vaas was still very much alive, but was under a coma. He was deeply sedated under hard-drugs, that put him into that forbidden slumber. He couldn't hear anything from reality. All he could do was just lay there, while in the fantasy world of his mind telling him that he was on the border of life and death.

[The Strangest Of Dreams]

_"Happy birthday!" A cheer of friends sang out, as Mickey blew out the candles to the enormous birthday cake presented to her at the long, dining table._

_He saw himself at that birthday party, but it didn't feel like he was on Rook Island any longer. Instead, it felt as if he were in an entirely different country. He felt a little timid, but he remained standing normally, right at the chair side of Mickey's, while the faceless friends were still singing the happy birthday theme._

_These faceless friends were all dressed up for an occasion. The male friends were dressed in sharp, pitch-black tuxedos, and had crimson roses on the jacket of the tux's breast pockets. The female friends were all in black, old Victorian long dresses, with funeral-veils covering their faces from view. But, looking closely through the nets of their veils, you could obviously see that they were faceless, cheering women._

_The room they stood in looked nothing normal. The four, towering walls of the room were hollowed, but mechanically functional with giant, round gears churning on the insides. The sounds of the gears rolling and ticking made loud throes the room. The booming, soft sounds of the gears ticking sounded like they were sitting in a clock tower of some sorts. The ceiling itself was abnormally high up, to where the shadows made it hard to determine of where the ceiling ended._

_He wasn't in his usual clothes he always wore. He was now in a new set of clothes: he was wearing a soft, pitch-black muscle-shirt; blackish grey jeans that fitted his legs well; and leather, hard-boots. His necklace wasn't on him. Instead, his collarbone was decorated with a necklace tattoo of Japanese kanji, that he couldn't read. His hands were covered in fingerless, black, soft gloves. He was the only one there, dressed in modern clothes._

_When he looked down at Mickey, her bright, Scottish-red hair stood out in perfect contrast. It looked like it was still short, from her recent haircut. She wasn't wearing her usual clothes, either. Instead, she was wearing a beautiful, rococo short-dress, that was black and white. The bottom of her dress, that touched her knees, ruffled beautifully. She had on long, white stockings, and black tap-shoes. The sleeves were short, exposing here extremely pale, white skin, that was almost glowing in his vision._

_After the faceless people stopped singing and started to cheer, Mickey looked up to her side at Vaas. It was still her normal face, but more cleaner from all the dirt and scratches he always saw on her. Her other eye was there, and she looked completely undamaged._

_Suddenly, the birthday party scene reeled further to the future scene of finding himself, walking down a long and empty corridor, with Mickey at his side._

_The corridor was nothing normal, either. The giant, painted windows of different, bright colors were talking to each other, in foreign languages such as German and Italian. None of them paid any mind to the two walking down the corridor together._

_"I hate that birthday song." Mickey said, hugging Vaas' arm. "It's purely there to jinx my future."_

_"Well, don't get surprised if some bad luck comes your way." Vaas joked, smirking down at Mickey's flustered face._

_Mickey and Vaas walked down the jawing corridor, until they reached a lit room, of a bright painted-crimson door. Mickey pushed the door open, and Vaas was stunned to see the furniture in the room... burning. The fabric from the couches and armchairs were lit on blue fire, and the tables and other wooden furniture was engulfed in orange fire._

_Sitting in the burning chairs were giant, enormous walking-oak trees. They couldn't speak. All of them were dressed up in old, traditional Victorian suits that men wore, seeming to be having a fabulous time together, sitting and drinking small glass teacups of some golden substance that sparkled brightly as glitter and diamonds. It smelled almost like maple syrup, which was ironic, in the most sadistic sort of way..._

_Mickey walked through that burning room with such ease, as if nothing was happening._

_Vaas followed behind her, staring at all the burning furniture, before he and Mickey went into a different room, secondary from the burning room._

_In the second room, it was a completely normal bedroom. Small, for one person. It seemed to have been Mickey's, from the way she gave a long sigh, and kicked off her tap-shoes, throwing them to a pile of stacking black shoes._

_"I wish they would all die." Vaas suddenly said, through his lips. He didn't even think it, but this counter-part of himself was. "We should sneak into their guest rooms and bash them in." He felt himself smiling wickedly, with a snicker escaping his lips._

_"... Want to?" Mickey suddenly asked. She looked at Vaas. "Want to kill them?"_

_Vaas raised his eyebrows at Mickey, with an emotion of excitement dancing in his glowing, green eyes. "Oh, so you do hate them?"_

_"Yeah." Mickey chuckled out. "They aren't real friends. They're just here because I've got all this wealth... that I don't want..." Mickey folded her arms. "I really hate this life. I wish I was never granted access to my family's life insurance. I wish they would just give the money to someone else..."_

_Vaas made an understanding nod. "... Well, I like you for what you are, you know."_

_Mickey looked at Vaas again, with a wide smile on her face. "I know you do."_

_After that little conversation, they both kissed, leading it on to more passionate doings._

_Quickly before Vaas knew it, he had Mickey on the single bed in the room, underneath of his form, and was undoing the belt and zipper to his jeans. When he did, he hooked Mickey's thin legs around his waist, pulled her hips up onto his lap, and kissed her hard, while he then pushed himself inside of her._

_Mickey's teeth clenched together, breaking the kiss, as she squeezed her legs around his waist, pulling at the back of his muscle-shirt._

_"You're still... tight." Vaas couldn't help but moan out, receiving a flushed look of timidity on Mickey's face. Her eyes were wide, and glowing the same, dark brown color he memorized so well. "Are you forever a virgin? Or, am I really Satan, harvesting a virgin, for myself?" He snickered, leaning in to lick at Mickey's quivering lips. "Let's see..."_

_He pulled himself out halfway, before thrusting back into her body again. Mickey gasped out, clawing at his back. Again, he made a wicked grin on his face, before proceeding to grind at her with pleasurable sensations, hitting the bundle-spot of nerves inside of herself that drove her crazy._

_"Vaas...!" Mickey exhaled out, with her head tipped back, eyes closed, and her mouth parted slightly, as Vaas gripped her hips with his burly hands, still thrusting into her tight warmth, while she could feel his lips on her exposed neck, nipping and licking at her skin with tenderness._

_With every push into her body, Mickey felt herself jerk up slightly, while Vaas' left hand massaged her hip and side._

_"I like this dress." Vaas panted out, feeling how the ruffles of her dress were brushing against his arms. "This is a nice dress."_

_In the background of that silently-stilled bedroom, Vaas could hear the sounds of people screaming and crying, out in fear. His eyes snapped open when he heard the sound of a gunshot ringing out. His eyes shifted down to Mickey's face, seeing that she was not paying attention to anything going on. Perhaps she couldn't hear it?_

_"Fuck it." Vaas just said to himself, declaring to ignore the booming sounds of gunshots and screams for mercy._

_Instead, he embraced Mickey in his arms, and started grinding his hips more rapidly against her's. He wanted to hear Mickey more, than before._

_He first heard Mickey make a startled, high-pitched gasp, before she started moaning out loudly, until those moans began to start increasing to high cries. She tried hard to not scream, so she just made those cries instead._

_The sounds of something new erupted on the other side of the bedroom door. It sounded like the human nails clawing into the wooden floor, while they were screaming for their lives, as something inhumanly monstrous was dragging them away with brute force, into the cellar of the Victorian house. It began to dawn on Vaas that it was most likely those walking-oak trees making their insidious attack on the faceless people inside the house._

_"It's okay." Vaas sighed softly against Mickey's exposed collarbone. "Just breathe."_

_"Gh..." Mickey exhaled heavily, opening her round eyes to look up at the ceiling._

_Vaas made a chuckle to her exasperated exhale and kissed her on the lips. He closed his eyes tightly, when he felt the same, warming swirl in his stomach react to every grind and thrust he made into Mickey. He moaned out when he felt Mickey plant kisses on his chin and jawline, in the most tender of ways, to let him know that she was still there with him, and still holding him in her arms._

_"I love you." Vaas whimpered out, with his forehead pressed against Mickey's. His eyes were still closed._

_Mickey's left arm unwrapped from Vaas' shoulders to smooth down his arm and find his hand. She entwined her fingers with his and they held each other's hands tightly._

_Vaas inhaled deeply, feeling his climax nearing._

_BANG._

_He snapped opened his eyes, feeling a different sensation now. When he opened his eyes, he found himself in the same corridor of talking windows. He was standing up, with a long rifle in his hands, holstered up in a shooting position. The rifle barrel fogged out white smoke, and before him, he found his latest victim laying dead on the marble floor._

_The victim was a blue-suited man, that had the head of a white rabbit. Blood splattered his sharp suit jacket, and also the corridor wall and floor. A giant, gapping hole in his chest was exposed, revealing his exploded heart and organs. He was already dead._

_"Ahahahahahaha!" A hyperactive laughter approached Vaas from behind. He was jumped on his back, by the familiar voice of Lucipher's. "They're everywhere! They're everywhere!" Lucipher was hyper, with blood on his face, hands, and his neon, bright orange tuxedo he wore. "Heheheheheheh!" He couldn't stop laughing, climbing off Vaas' back to look down at his own hands. "I strangled her! Took her down to that cellar, and strangled her!" He smacked himself in the face, smearing blood on his bruised cheek._

_"Stop it." Jackal shoved Lucipher forward, from behind. He now stood next to Vaas. "I swear... more of these fuckers with Rabbit heads... When does it ever stop?" Jackal wasn't wearing anything Victorian, either. Somehow, it made sense that he wouldn't. If he was forced to wear something fancy, he would tear it up immediately. His own outfits looked something like Vaas', but he was wearing a black t-shirt with sleeves instead, and he had no tattoos._

_"Ready for the funeral?" Ronnie asked the three men. He was dressed sharp, in a neon, crimson tuxedo. "We should go, right now."_

_"Who's funeral?" Vaas asked Ronnie, strapping the rifle onto his back._

_"Mister and Missus Carrot-Top." Ronnie answered, straightening his tuxedo's black bow-tie around his neck. "Those Rabbit-men killed them last week, and took big bites out of their sides. They died, so we should go pay our respects for the carrots." Ronnie then glanced at Lucipher, noticing how bloodied he looked. "What the hell, Lucipher! We're dressed for a special occasion, and you look like a complete slob!"_

_"B-But..." Lucipher stuttered, hugging himself with his arms wrapped around his chest. "... I saw the angels, when I killed Missus Waifu."_

_"Well then, with a last name like that, keep here down there! But, you need to clean your damn face and hands first!" Ronnie started shoving Lucipher in a nearby washroom. "Honestly!" He lastly sighed, before slamming the door shut behind himself._

_When the four men got to the funeral, though, they were stunned to find that the place was ransacked by the Rabbit-men, that destroyed all the wooden pews for the captive audience to sit on, and that they were killing and devouring on the Carrot-priest. The rest of the citizens of the darkly nighted town were running for their lives out of the funeral spot. Vaas couldn't help but notice that the audience were the same, walking-oak trees he saw before. They were covered in blood, that wasn't even theirs, and even in clothes that he saw the faceless people wearing before._

_He made a chuckle to himself. "So, the trees are scared of rabbits, but not of humans... Ironic..."_

_"It's nothing ironic. It's all fictitious bullshit." A familiar voice boomed into Vaas' ears, shaking the ground he stood on, and making the tree citizens screeching for their lives._

_Jackal, Lucipher and Ronnie suddenly fell over, morphing into ragdolls of their designed forms. Vaas was still standing human, but overwhelmed and confused of what was happening._

_Then, at the horizon of the entire mountain region they were on, a Dynamite giant came out of the rocky walls. His movements shook the entire land hard, as he slammed his hands down onto the heads of the mountain walls, and pulled himself out of the ocean he emerged from. He was literally standing as high as the Empire State building, and overgrown with strength of one-million tons. Chains wrapped around his torso, and wrists, but all were broken._

_Dynamite swiped his hand down at the running citizens of oak trees and other petrified walking-vegetables, picking them up in his massive palm and gobbling them up._

_"Le monstre!" A horrified bok choy-woman screamed, before swooning dramatically onto the ground, like an actress in a terrible soap-opera._

_"VAAS." Dynamite screamed out Vaas' name._

_Vaas remained absolutely still where he was, staring right up at Dynamite's fire eyes._

_"TIME TO WAKE UP." Dynamite lastly screamed out, before slamming his hand straight down onto Vaas' body._

[Awaken, Awaken]

"Time to wake up." Dynamite quietly said, as the sedation to Vaas' long-term coma finally lifted.

Vaas slowly fluttered his eyes opened, looking up at a bright, blue light from the short ceiling, that was beaming right down onto his face. His pupils dilated, for a long minute, before they could focus onto the two shadows hovering over his laying form. One had spiky hair, indicating that it was Dynamite. The other had short, ruffled hair, indicating that it was Eyes.

"He looks as if he's stabled." Dynamite's voice muffled into Vaas' ears. "How's his heart-rate?"

"Excellent." Eyes nodded. His voice was also muffled. "His blood flow is also perfected. His body is still very slump, though." Eyes kept looking back at something over Vaas' head, making their patient extremely confused and fearful. "I think he's going to be in for a surprise when we get him up."

"No worries." Dynamite shrugged. "We can get him up, right now." Dynamite took something from his side, reaching his hand over to Vaas' eyes with something in his grasp. Vaas felt it to be a damped rag, wiping off beads of sweat from his forehead, follow by wiping off Vaas' weary eyes. "Let's go."

Eyes pressed a button on the stretcher Vaas laid on and it began to start moving forward, forming up into a vertical standing-position. Dynamite and Eyes grabbed Vaas' arms and help him out of the stretcher. When Vaas finally had a chance to move his legs, he was still confused and delirious. The side effects of the coma he was in.

"Vaas, if you can respond, tell me how you feel." Dynamite said aloud to Vaas.

Hearing this, Vaas blinked a couple of times. He felt nothing different. He responded by shaking his head, and a small shrug of his shoulders.

"I'll take it that he doesn't know the serious changes..." Eyes chuckled over to Dynamite. "S'okay. We can show him in that mirror."

The two managed to walk Vaas carefully towards a body mirror, to let him see for himself.

"I should get him a wheelchair. He can hardly stand up." Eyes said, still holding onto to Vaas' arm, while Dynamite wrapped his arm around Vaas' back, and held his weight up.

"Don't take long. He weights a ton." Dynamite jokes.

A few seconds later, Eyes came back with a wheelchair from the next room, unfolding it out behind Vaas. Carefully, Dynamite and Eyes eased him backwards into the chair.

"We should give him another week to recover some more. He's barely in the right position of just waltzing out of here." Dynamite said, as he walked off with Eyes. "Give him a minute to process everything, get him a glass of water, and we'll begin the exercise."

**A view on what Vaas was going through, the entire month of isolation inside of Dynamite's base, being fixed up for a brighter, perhaps different, future.**

**The ideas of everything going on strangely in Vaas' wonderland were inspirations of the _American McGee's Alice game_.**


	29. The Jawing Man

[Seven Days]

"... _About three things I was absolutely positive about: first, Edward was a vampire. Second, there was a part of him - and I didn't know how dominant that part was - that thirsted for my blood. And, third, I was unconditionally and irrevocably in love with him_..."

The rest of the famous quotes from the popular teenage movie franchise eventually drained out of sound, to the much louder, more rattling, noise of Joanie Jets' snoring.

Joanie was bored one day, and had ventured out to Vaas' shack to watch any type of film he had sitting around. Which were plenty enough to last for two years-time. And, out of her own curiosity, after watching the thriller horror "Dog Soldiers", she wanted to see if the status of vampires had anything of good quality as the wolves did. Unfortunately, the last DVD disk of "Interview With A Vampire" was broke, so she went to the only vampire film title she found, under the rubble of romance films.

Twilight.

Joanie didn't last long through the film, because she was immediately lulled to sleep, after the film was taking an astronomical amount of time to actually hit any interesting climax of the resolution. She fell asleep after a scene of the main character, Bella Swan, and the vampire romantic, Edward Cullen, _finally_ started having a non-discussion-relationship together. Joanie constantly kept nodding off to every part of the film, of Bella narrating of every, single event, and finally fell asleep.

In the shack, there was only one, wide armchair, that acted as the movie seat. Joanie was curled up in the seat, with her arms hugging her legs close to her chest, and the side of her face resting against the back-rest of the armchair. She was snoring loudly, like a sawmill.

"Fuck this." A voice drummed through her ears, but hardly enough to wake her up.

The humming noise of the television set still running was enough to keep Joanie asleep.

But, the feeling of someone brushing their fingers over her bangs, to part them from covering her face, was something that stirred her awake lightly. The next sensation of heavy blanket-fabric covering her small body was what made her flutter her eyes open.

"_I know what you are_!" Bella Swan declared bravely, as she nervously looked on somewhere else, other that facing Edward.

"_Say it_," Edward hissed down at Bella. "_Out loud. Say it._" He repeated himself, in a firm tone of voice.

"Fucking stupid-ass, glitter-sparkling, vampire. That's what you are."

A familiar Spanish accent rolling out insults made Joanie's eyebrows raise, and her eyelids lift. She turned her head a little to the left, looking over to where the television set was. She saw no one's shadow in front of the bright screen, so she thought she was hearing things. She turned her head back to rest against the armchair's backrest and closed her eyes, sighing to herself. The blanket wrapped around her body was warm and thickly layered, than the other thin sheets she used to sleep in.

Then, the soft, smooth sounds of gears rolling perked her ears up. The sounds reminded her of Mickey's mobile, prosthetic arm.

Joanie sat herself up now, stretching out her arms and yawning heavily. "... Mickey?" Joanie sighed out, rubbing her eye with the heel of her hand.

"No, pequeña. It's me." The same, Spanish voice spoke up.

Joanie's eyebrows raised again, and eyes widened in shock. "Vaas?!" She literally screeched, jumping off the armchair. "When did you get back?!" She searched for any figure of Vaas in the darkened shack, finding that he was already across the large room.

His figure was covered in the dark, farther away from the television's flickering blue light.

"Come here! I want to see you!" Joanie jogged over to Vaas' taller form, grabbing him by the wrist with both her small hands.

Hand gripped the cold steel of his wrist. She was shocked by this, and instantly let go from the touch. "What the...?" She murmured to herself, backing of a few steps from Vaas' shadowy figure. "Was that your... new arm?" She asked Vaas.

She heard him made a chuckle. "So, you knew about my surgery?"

"Uh, _duh_!" Joanie rolled her eyes dramatically. "Mickey saw you before your operation. She told me how you looked, and what Dynamite was going to do to fix you up." She took her recent steps forward to Vaas once more, grabbing his mechanical wrist. She lifted his hand up to her face to inspect it properly. "Whoa! You've got the same chrome and steel, like Mickey does!" She then looped around Vaas' back to his opposite side. "What's your leg look like?! Does it look different?! I heard that Eyes had to amputate the entire thing!" She ranted on with more questions being fired away, with Vaas remaining absolutely silent.

But, the questions soon came down to an end, when Vaas suddenly said something. "I'm sorry."

"Huh?" Joanie halted her questions, looking up to Vaas' shadow-covered face.

"I _said_ I'm sorry. For being a fucking dick about last time, when I fought with Mickey." He clicked his tongue, lowering his head slightly. "I shouldn't have exposed you to that kind of fucking bullshit. Not to any kid..." Joanie was silent now. "... I feel like my fucking dad, when he fought with mom in front of me. He was such a prick."

But, he felt the assuring pat on the middle of his back from Joanie's strong, but small, hand. "It's okay. I got to stab you in the back twice, so we're even." She couldn't help but make an arrogant chuckle. But, Vaas made a sounding smirk to that response. "And, anyways... It doesn't matter much, now. What happened, happened. Yeah?"

Vaas was astounded by the little girl's spunk. She toughed out the fight, and still found ways to still have heart in the situations. Perhaps she wasn't the one, like every little girl her age, to cry so often. Or, perhaps her crooked parents were smart enough to toughen her up to the hard, emotional moments to placeholder everything. She was being a little snarky, yes, but not to where Vaas would go awol on her.

"Maybe I _am _the one." Vaas laughed at himself, confusing Joanie. "Maybe I _am _the one teaching you how to be spunky."

"Pfft." Joanie rolled her eyes again. "My parents taught me how. You're just boosting it to the extreme!"

Vaas and Joanie walked towards the television set together, still seeing that it was flickering blue light of the teenage-drama film reeling on.

"Why the fuck are you watching this Twilight bullshit?" Vaas asked, ejecting the DVD disk out of the DVD player.

"Why the fuck do _you_ have it in _your_ possessions?" Joanie retorted, folding her arms.

"I wanted to see what all the hype was about, with this fucking film. I watched only fifteen minutes of this shit, while you fell asleep, and I wanted to go throw it in the Pit and blow-torch it." Vaas looked down at the design front of the DVD disk, and made a disgusted face. "I wasted too much money on a twenty-dollar film title, like this piece of fucking crap."

"Vampires and werewolves..." Joanie mumbled, while Vaas snapped the disk in half. "Next thing you know, they're going to make stupid romance films out of aliens!"

"They did." Vaas immediately answered.

"WHAT?!" Joanie screeched, sounding as if she were ready to flip over the television set.

[The Body]

Joanie couldn't stop staring at Vaas' face and new limbs, once they were outdoors, into the deep, beaming sunlight of the afternoon. Having a better look at his face, Joanie was shocked.

His new arm was entire, instead of half. It was an advanced, ball-jointed prosthetic arm that was all mobile. His robotic fingers moved normally and smoothly, and the flexing done to the rest of the arm was superb. Everything that bended in his arm and fingers were ball-jointed, helping it to smoothly mobile, just as a human's arm. It, too, shared the same, chrome color, as his jaw did.

His leg was also an entire prosthetic leg, instead of half of it. Just like the arm, it was also a ball-jointed limb, that moved in perfectly on walk, run, jog, or speeding.

Both the limbs were created and attached the same to his human torso in the same procedure. Connecting to muscles in his body, that he could control fluently with his brain.

Vaas' face looked completely normal. Cleaner from the constant mending Dynamite and Eyes had to do to his body, since he was asleep for the entire month. His lower-jaw was a different story now.

His lower-jaw was a mechanical function of steel and cybernetic tech. The lower-jaw fitted to his face like a chin-strap. The jaw was a smooth, metallic structure, that was also attached to the backs of his cheekbones, so that they could function as a regular, opening jaw. The jaw's underside was entirely surgical skin and thin, excess skin, that was blending into his skin tone, down from his throat, to his collarbone. The jaw wasn't as bulky as Joanie kept picturing it to be. Instead, it was a fitted lower-jaw, that matched up perfectly to Vaas' facial plant. The metal was smoothed out to a chrome-finish, and looked as a mimicked, prosthetic mirror of his old jaw.

He had no bottom lip, which meant his new set of bottom-row teeth were exploit. The lower-jaw's new set of teeth were white, unbreakable steel, that were shaped perfectly into teeth. His upper-row of teeth were also the same, after his normal row of teeth were pried out, and replaced with the same, white steel teeth. They looked like normal, pearly-whites, but obviously a different story, if they were strong enough to bite through metallic cables.

And, they could.

"Mickey will be having a heart attack, when she sees you." Joanie jokes.

Vaas opened his mouth to bark out laughing. Joanie watched in awe as his cybernetic lower-jaw opened up, with the sounds of the gears rolling softly, from where the gears hooked close to the backs of his cheekbones, and to the sides of his strong neck. Vaas' upper-jaw was still there, and his upper-lip, so he could make a smile or grin properly. Strangely, the jaw could format with his facial expressions perfectly.

"Whoa." Joanie couldn't help but softly say, as she watched Vaas laugh. "That looks so creepy."

"Aw," Vaas made a petulant pout.

**A very, VERY short chapter. Sorry about that, mate. I just wanted it to be all about Vaas' new limbs and jaw. And some bonding with Joanie Jets.**

**How will things go, with his new body? See more soon, in the next chapter...!**


	30. The Rape Of Vaas

[Dream State]

Oh, dig my grave,  
It's not me you'll save.  
'Cause I'm a lost cause.  
I'm a lost cause.  
A lost, lost cause.

_"Ah, my fucking head..." Vaas sat up in his cot, rubbing his forehead wearily. "Huh... it's awful quiet outside..." He noticed, eyeing the closed curtains on the window across from his shack room. He shrugged and jumped out of bed, tiredly walking over to the door of the shack. He was going to merely step outside and see just what was with all the silence outside of the island._

_When he opened the door, he wasn't met by the beaming sunlight of the afternoon blinding him normally._

_Instead, he was met by pitch darkness._

_No sign of a dirt path. No trees. No smell of the jungle or ocean. No skies of blue or sunshine. Just... pitch blackness._

_It was as if he were staring straight back at a giant, painted, solid wall of black. But, Vaas could put his hand through the darkness. He felt the shock of freezing air breeze straight over his skin, immediately giving him goosebumps. He bravely stepped into the blackness, blindly putting both hands out in front of himself to start searching for any sort of life in front of himself, while slowly pacing forward._

_"What the fuck is this?" Vaas asked himself under his breath, as he continued walking forward, inch by inch, trying to find a source of any figurative life. "H-Hey! Is anyone fucking here?! Hello?!" Vaas' shouts were throes of echoes throughout what seemed to be an emptied stadium or auditorium. His voice echoed, and yet, there was not a single voice responding back. "Hey!" He screamed, with his voice echoing out through stone walls._

_Absolutely nothing._

Wait... All this time, that I have spent away,  
Makes me think that I might be okay.  
For this, the kiss of death will have to wait.

My head is holding on to all those things you said.  
You taught me to be strong, and get through it.  
The mist of darkness, in my head...

_"I should just go back..." Vaas told his feet, feeling as if he were gone too long from the only source of light and realism of his shack._

_When he turned around, he saw that the opened door to his shack was still there, but, it was farther away than how much steps he took out into the darkness. He felt a cold sweat run down the side of his face nervously, knowing exactly where this sort of dream state would be taking him._

_Nightmares._

_"Psst." A voice hissed behind his back._

_Vaas shook from the sound of a new voice now speaking up, but he turned around to confront whatever was there._

_Behind him, he saw... himself._

_This Vaas was nothing like himself, though._

_This Vaas looked fleshed out, beyond normality. This duplicate had all its missing body parts; lower-jaw, right-arm, and left-leg; attached to himself with red, thick stitches. But, the stitches were leaving obvious marks of irritation on his amply pale skin, though. Darkened marks of blood stains and rippled skin tones were decorating underneath the bright, crimson stitches. Along with his lower-jaw also experiencing the same irritation from the red stitches._

_The duplicate's eyes were normal, but, he had no ring of colors indicating life. The only thing visible in his eyes were the dilated pupils._

_He stared right back at the real Vaas, breathing heavily through his nostrils, and cracking the utmost wicked grin on his face._

_"I want to be you." The duplicate reached out a dirtied hand, of what seemed to have been dirt and grime of human flesh, towards the real Vaas._

_"F-Fuck off!" Vaas swatted his hand away, and made a quick-turn to start running back to the shack._

_As he darted straight back to the opened door of salvation, he could hear the agonizing grunts of pain from the duplicate chasing after him with his wounded leg. Every time Vaas looked over his shoulder at the duplicate, he could hear it cackling cynically at his chase, with its arms stretched out to try grabbing for Vaas' back. For a duplicate with a wounded leg, he was keeping up especially well._

_"_Come back to me_!" The duplicate's throes were full of a husked torment, pleading in the most haunted voice._

_"I said fuck off!" Vaas screamed back at the duplicate, nearing his safe-house._

_When he reached the doorway of the only source of light, Vaas instantly felt the sharp grips of hands grasping his shoulders, and tearing him away from realism quicker than he had imagined. He screamed in utter fear of being torn away from waking up, as he felt the strong hands take him back into the darkness. He could feel the nails digging into his skin as well, piercing him like metallic screws drilling into his flesh._

Oh, dig my shallow grave.  
It's not me you'll save.  
'Cause I'm a lost cause.  
I'm a lost cause.  
A lost, lost cause.

_The door to the shack slammed shut by itself, and Vaas was thrown down onto the pitch black ground. Before he could regroup his thoughts, his arms were slammed down into the dark ground. Hands gripped his wrists down. The face of his duplicate hovered over his, feeling the duplicate's body also hovering over his, with his legs pressed tightly close to Vaas' hips._

_"What the fuck do you want?" Vaas asked himself, looking straight up at crazed eyes of himself. Or, what was him. "What do you want from me?!"_

_"I want you." The duplicate responded back in its husky voice. Vaas stopped struggling under the duplicate's grasp from that answer. "I want to be you. Or, I want you to love me back again." The same, wicked grin returned on his crooked face. He roughly tilted his head to the side. "Don't you love me?"_

_"You're... me." Vaas could merely utter out, unsure of how to respond to the duplicate's question. "How can I fucking love myself?"_

_"How...?" The duplicate sounded ready to burst out laughing. "Let me show you."_

_With that being said, the duplicate released Vaas' wrists and immediately clamped his hands onto the sides of Vaas' head, swooping down to capture his lips into his._

_Vaas' eyes shot open wide, as he tried to shove off the duplicate from his body. But, for some reason, he could feel his arms growing weaker and weaker. His kicking were also slowing down to a stop. Vaas panicked, finding that all his limbs were becoming slump from movements he tried making them do. He could still feel that his torso, neck and head were still mobile, but that wasn't useful to the extent of what was going on._

_"You never loved me." The duplicate snarled against Vaas' quivering lips. "You never wanted to." He roughly kissed Vaas again, gripping his chin in his hand to hold his head in place of the kiss._

_Oddly, at that moment, Vaas could feel that his steel jaw wasn't there. Instead, it was his normal jaw. He didn't realize it beforehand, because he was becoming use to having a prosthetic jaw._

Wait... No one said what's lost cannot be found.  
You are here, to make it safe and sound.  
Oh, we can make it out alive.

Fate hath its way, when all that's learned is sin...  
Nothing really matters, in the end,  
As long as you are with me, "friend"...

_Vaas could feel his mouth being forced open by a thumb slipping passed his lips and gripping down on his lower-row of teeth. When his mouth opened, the duplicate's tongue slithered into his mouth, molesting his mouth with the skilled tongue exploring every square inch of his watery mouth. Vaas shut his eyes tightly when he felt the duplicate's tongue smooth against his own tongue, in a perverted motion. The duplicate's lips were still brushing against his own, as his freehand was roaming freely over his chest and shivering neck._

_Out of his own attack, Vaas tried biting down on the duplicate's tongue. He didn't on time, but he managed to bite down on his thumb._

_"Fuck you." The duplicate hissed lowly, before delivering a sharp punch against Vaas' stomach._

_The strike was so surprising, it took Vaas off his guard. He coughed out hard, and stopped moving his jaw, because he didn't want to be hit again._

_The sound of his pants' belt was unbuckling, and Vaas grew more panicked. He couldn't move his limbs, or roll over, due to the duplicate's weight put down on his body. The duplicate was sitting squared in Vaas' lap, while stripping him from his camouflage pants and belt._

_"Don't-!" Vaas' breathing was uneven. "Don't... Don't...!"_

_"Why should I?" The duplicate cynically asked him, with a stretched grin on his face. "Give me an excuse."_

_"I'll stop ignoring myself." Vaas pleaded, with his voice shaky. "... I'll try better to do well for myself for now on."_

_"Nope." The duplicate merely responded, before pulling down Vaas' pants halfway to his knees, leaving them as they were. "You lie."_

_"W-Wait!" Vaas tried again, but was being heavily ignored now. "I'm not lying!" He looked at himself in the eyes, seeing nothing in them now. "Please... I'm saying please!"_

_That earned him a hard punch into his face. The duplicate's fist connected to the corner of Vaas' lips, busting his skin to make it start streaming blood. It immediately started bruising as well, as Vaas was almost out of breath from that shocker. He fearfully looked right back at the duplicate's crazed eyes._

_"I love you." The duplicate raised his knuckles to his own lips to lick off the small spots of blood._

_The duplicate lifted Vaas' legs up over his shoulders, and lined himself up to plunge himself into Vaas._

_With a powerful thrust, the duplicate forced himself into Vaas' body._

_"Aaah!" Vaas screamed, feeling his body jerk upward violently. He felt the air knock right out of his lungs, coughing out whatever was left stored in his body. His eyes widened and his mouth hung open, in sheer agony. He couldn't dig his immobile fingers-tips into the blackened ground underneath his body, as much as he wanted to. His unmoving legs twitched violently in numbing pain. "St-Stop...!" Vaas gasped out, feeling as if he were shouting for help._

_No clear response from his rapist. All he could hear were the sinister cackles of his enjoyment to Vaas' torture._

_He pulled out far enough to pushed right back into Vaas' body, with the sheer, dry thrusts stabbing Vaas in the utmost pain he could ever imagine possible._

_That thrust made him cough out what was left of his breath. He body jerked upward once more to the violent shove into his body. His breathing became stilled and uneven to control. He felt suffocated in the situation, which scared him most._

_The one thing he could do was just lay his head down to the side, forcibly enduring more, until the duplicate would be finished with him sooner or later._

Oh, dig by shallow grave.  
It's not me you'll save.  
'Cause I'm a lost cause.  
I'm a lost cause.  
A lost, lost cause.

_"Look at me." The wicked duplicate grabbed Vaas' throat with a hard grip, making Vaas snap open his eyes and looked back at him. "I'm a lost cause. Don't you fucking get it?!" He screamed down at Vaas' face, seeing that something sparked in his pale, light green eyes. Fear, he smelled. "I risked everything save what?! A fucking island!" He shoved into Vaas again with sheer force, hearing nothing out of the vulnerable man. He was out of air. "I risked too much for something so little! And I didn't even do it for myself! No, I never fucking did!" He drilled the back of Vaas' head into the black ground underneath. "Not me! Not myself! I'm a lost cause!"_

_Vaas didn't know what to say. He closed his eyes, furrowed his eyebrows, and clutched his teeth tight. He turned his head back to the side, feeling tears run down from his closed corneas. The pain of hearing himself scream at himself verbally was... so depressing and haunted. Vaas didn't know whether he deserved to be treated like a vulnerable victim under the crime of something he did, or if he should respond with some pride left in himself._

_"I..." Vaas croaked out. "I... I can't..." He couldn't clear out what he was trying to say. He could see that his duplicate was waiting for his response. But, nothing came out._

_"You're fucking stupid!" His duplicate screamed down at him, making him flinch in fright. The duplicate wrapped both his large hands around Vaas' throat. He started strangling Vaas, while still penetrating him endlessly. "You can't even stand up to yourself! As many times as I tried _so _hard to love you, you always reject me!" His screams were churning into something drastically loud and sinister in every word. His voice twisted into a husky, low, but shouting tone of voice._

No one can understand me,  
Like you can understand.  
No one can fill your shadow,  
'Cause you're all that I am.

_Vaas couldn't breath. He was strangled in a chokehold of his own-self trying to kill him. His immobile arms still wouldn't function in the ordeal, as he remained laying there, taking in the sharp thrusts of forced love and strangling hatred._

_"I'm-! Sorry-!" Vaas could only croak out, as his eyes were still fixed on his duplicate's dilated ones. "I'm..." Before he could speak up another word, he finally went slump._

"Vaas! Wake up!" Mickey shook Vaas awake.

Vaas snapped his eyes opened, inhaling a large amount of air into his mouth. His heart was racing and his blood was pulsing. He woke up in a cold sweat, as well.

"Where the fuck am I?" Vaas asked aloud, frightened as he looked at his surroundings, finding that he was back in his normal shack, in his normal cot. Before him at his side was Mickey, who was looking back at him in confusion. "Is... Is this realism?" He quietly asked Mickey, still not moving out of his cot.

"Yeah!" Mickey rolled her eyes. "You're awake, dummy. I saw you twitching in your sleep, and went to wake you up! You were screaming something about yourself, too..." She made a thoughtful look on her face, smiling at Vaas. "Did someone have a nightmare?" She asked, in a motherly-tone of voice.

Vaas took a couple of breaths, wiping the back of his hand over his eyes. "... Yeah... A nightmare..." He nodded his head fast. "... Just a nightmare..."

"Should I give you a cuddle and a kiss, to make the monsters disappear?" Mickey asked, comfortingly brushing her hand over Vaas' bicep.

Vaas looked at Mickey, silently staring at her for a moment. "... Please." He finally answered, opening his arms up to her.

Mickey happily obliged and jumped into his cot, embracing her frightened lover with her arms around his torso, and feeling him curl against her body closely, like a cat. His large arms wrapped around her waist, and his head rested on her chest.

"I'm scared." Vaas admitted, after a long minute of silence.

"Hm?" Mickey raised her eyebrow. "Scared of what, my dark angel?"

"... Myself." He lastly whispered.

_Oh, dig my shallow grave.  
It's not me you'll save.  
'Cause I'm a lost cause.  
I'm a lost cause.  
A lost, lost cause..._

**Sometimes, in our darkest moments of life, we are confronted by the last person we want to see... And, it's _ourselves_. We run, we fight, we are trapped. There are many faces in the world we don't want to be downed upon. But, what if you were confronted by your own self? Fear is real, if you fear yourself.**

**Vaas is violated in a confrontation of himself, in a dream state. A brief story, full of his duplicated, hateful-self raping him senseless, while spitting verminous words into his face.**

**As much as it was something entirely new of me to do with a rape scene, this _isn't_ the first time I've written yaoi. *Smiles smiles.* Trust me, I've done plenty of Vaas and Male!OC getting it on. _Har har harrrrr... _I may draw this chapter out, as I had drawn that main-photo of cyborg-Vaas.**

**Song in the chapter is "Lost Cause" by Imagine Dragons. Heard it, and thought of Vaas.**


	31. You're My Clarity

For a while, Vaas had fallen silent into his own graces, whether to go on with a war, or just remain the way he was.

When he came to, the news of Hoyt's death by Jason Brody did not phase him. He knew it would happen eventually, because Jason was taking direct orders from the woman Vaas once called sister.

Jason took the opportunity and obliterated his saved friends, to Citra's favor, and remained on the island at her side. Citra planned to make a newborn with Jason soon, and, after she is proven pregnant, she would terminate Jason, as he did his job on providing her the new heir or heiress to the tribe's throne.

Vaas had thought of wanting to kill Jason before, but, now he felt as if he didn't want to do no such thing. Something in his heart was actually speaking back to him. Saying that there would be no point on killing Jason, when he was going to be terminated by Citra in the near-future. But, he knew that he still had to fight against Citra, for the real battle was not over.

Of course, killing Hoyt wouldn't be enough to satisfy her thirst for dominance.

"Vaas!" A squeaky voice shouted Vaas' name from a distance.

Vaas was sitting at the cliff, on a rock, quietly looking out at the ocean horizon of the morning rising. He was in the utmost peace of mind, thinking hard to himself, and reoccurring those vague memories of his past life. For once, he hadn't cringed to the thought of those darker times in his life. Instead, he went through the same steps as he saw himself take long ago.

"Vaas!" The voice approached him closely.

He blinked, snapping out of his mid-trance and looked over his shoulder. It was Joanie. "Oh, hey, amiga." He nodded once to her.

"Quick favor; those mango trees are ready for picking. Can I use you as a ladder to reach them?" Joanie asked, as she swung a handmade basket in her left-hand, at her side.

Vaas pulled himself up from the sitting rock and started walking with Joanie to the said trees, that were just at the cliff-side, flourished with ripe mangos. They were especially high, which was out of Joanie's petite height. Vaas was a stabled height, and also strong enough to let her sit upon his shoulders and pick the mangos out of the trees.

Sitting upon Vaas' shoulders, Joanie was picking at the mangos, occasionally checking for fruit spiders and to see if they were not rotted. Most of them were fresh and newly ripe, so her basket was becoming quite full of the fruit.

"Hey, amiga." Vaas decided to ask the question. "You think your parents are ever coming back?"

Joanie fell silent, as she continued picking at the mangos. After she threw a mango into her basket, she unsurely answered, "... Maybe not."

"You staying here, then?" Vaas asked another time.

Joanie shrugged with a heavy sigh. "Maybe. I mean, I really like you guys, so..." She picked another mango from the tree and examined it with a once-over, and handed it to Vaas. "You like mangos, right?"

"Yes." Vaas took it from her, while using his freehand to fish out a switchblade from his pocket. He started to skin the mango, revealing the moist, orange flesh on the inside. "Things are quieter lately, no?"

"_You're_ quiet." Joanie retorted, playfully smacking her hand over the top of Vaas' head. "When you're quiet, everything is quiet. Even people."

"Fine. I'll start jawing again." Vaas grinned, hearing little Joanie make a snort. "I'm still going to be curt. If not fucking blunt."

Days of time to himself, just feeling like he were almost left dead and gone, he was revived to think back on things he had done in his past. He regretted few things, and remorse for the earlier times more often. But, he knew those days were long gone, but, at the same time, Vaas heard a different voice in his head say that he shouldn't hide forever from that fact. Constantly, Vaas' mind was reeling with working wheels he thought that weren't functional those days before.

For some reason, just from the refreshing thought of friends joining his side, and new ones, Vaas began to think of appreciating the little things in life, and just grow up. Forcing himself to grow up was something of a step he's never taken before, but, now he was willing for it to happen. A weight on his shoulders were beginning to lift, as he began to slowly tell himself to move on from the past.

The days felt less of a hassle now, as he tried to cope with his own emotions he fried long ago. Thinking for himself had made him quieter for the past few days.

"I wonder what the Pirate Lord is thinking now." A familiar voice tugged a smirk on Vaas' lips. It was Mickey. "Just because we're not talking doesn't mean you have to ignore me, too, you jerky-jerkface." Mickey stepped inside the shack fully, proceeding towards Vaas at his cot. "Now tell me what's been gospel on your mind." Mickey plopped down next to Vaas, close enough for their shoulders and forearms to touch.

Vaas shrugged one shoulder. "What's all the fuss over me, thinking? I'm just reflecting on things." He exhaled lightly. "Am I thinking too much?"

"You sometimes do. And, when you do, you often never come out of your trance." Mickey sighed softly, rolling her eyes with a smirk. "Of course, I am always here to pry you out of your thoughts. If that's fine with you," she glanced up at Vaas, with an innocent look in her eyes.

"Psh." Vaas scoffed, wrapping his arms around her shoulders. "No such thing as prying to Vaas!" He clapped his hands together firmly. "I get what I want, and whenever."

"Pft." Mickey scoffed now. "Oh, that reminds me of something." Mickey looked back to her satchel she carried with her. "All this serious talk, I almost forgot about this." She unlatched her satchel to retrieve what looked like a wolf-head hat-and-cloak. It was a large mass of grayish black fur, with the taxidermy head of the wolf's still attached, glowing gold eyes, pearly white-teeth and pointed ears caught Vaas' attention. The body of the fur was long and thick with layers of leather on the interior.

Mickey handed the cloak to Vaas.

"Winter's coming up soon, and, I remembered you said you liked wolves, so..." She shrugged. "I thought of hunting the biggest wolf in our jungle, and make something out of it, while you were gone. Do you like it?" She excitedly asked, seeing Vaas carefully throw on the cloak, with the wolf's head over his own.

Vaas stood up to let the cloak hug his back warmly, and the arms of the wolves fur drape over his shoulders. He walked over to the broken body mirror in his shack and looked at himself with the wolf cloak. The wolf head sat perfectly over his head, with the teeth just barely touching his forehead. Its dead eyes still pierced him hard, just from how dilated and gold they shone in the darkness. The fur was cleaned thoroughly, and soft against his bare shoulders. Somehow, just looking at himself like this in the mirror, he thought of himself as a different person.

"_Me encanta_." Vaas answered, patting the top of the wolf's head, feeling the fur through his fingers.

Mickey gave him a paused look on her face. "Hold on, while I break out the iPad for Google Translate." She curtly said, making Vaas chuckle.

"I said I fucking love it." Vaas turned to her, with a smile stretched across his face. "I appreciate it, a lot, chica." He glanced away for a brief moment to the thank you he displayed. Obviously bashful of saying thank you verbally. "What about you?"

Mickey shrugged her arms. "I wanted tiger pelt, but, most of them are common. I wanted the golden tiger." Mickey honestly said. "Damn hunters lately. It's going to take a while for a golden tiger to reappear once more." She thoughtfully said, thinking to herself.

Vaas felt his eyebrow raise at her. "Well, it doesn't mean you can't get warm under this." He gestured his hands to his torso dramatically. "Under my umbrella-ella-ella."

"Oh, no," Mickey sarcastically refused. "I just need a strong man to help me. I guess that makes me like a _cosmo fugitive_." She mocking said in a high-pitched voice, before fluttering her eyes.

"Hermana," Vaas chuckled, marching up to her to lay her down on her back on the cot, while he laid his body on top of her's.

They kissed.

"You _are _warm!" Mickey embraced Vaas, feeling the fur brushing against her forearms.

Vaas grinned widely, as he nuzzled his face against the crook of her neck and shoulder, smelling the scent of joss sticks. "I miss your smell." Vaas admitted bashfully, feeling his face almost tint with red. "I miss your Scottish red hair, too. And, your vibrant brown bug eyes."

"Bug eyes? You've got bug eyes, too." Mickey retorted.

"Sssssshhhhhhh," Vaas shushed her. "I'm not finished. Where was I...? Oh, right." He cleared his throat. "I missed your voice, too... It's always assurance to me, just to hear your voice." He sighed heavily, with his shoulders dropping, as he also relaxed himself down on Mickey, with his arms down and his hands over her sides. He shrugged his shoulders. "I think I miss you, overall..." He pressed his ear onto the right of her chest, listening carefully for her heart beats. When he found it, he closed his eyes for a moment to continue listening.

Mickey raised her eyebrow in suspicion of Vaas' sudden change. "Why the change of heart?" Mickey asked him, massaging her hand over the back of his neck. "Am I sure this is Vaas speaking, or am I being seduced by a different man?"

"So blunt, yet so kind." Vaas lifted his head up to look at Mickey. "I missed that about you, too. Please, tell me why are you my clarity to this insanity, at once." He smirked, before leaning in to kiss Mickey once more as she giggled at him, with her eyes lighting up.

**[Mama, Papa]**

"Oh, the tenderness of romance."

"Speak, you worthless worm."

Dynamite hissed at their new guy - a drug addicted serial killer from America nicknamed Edmund Kemper.

Edmund pointed down the hill from where they were relaxing, and pointed out Vaas, Mickey and Joanie walking together, towards either the beach or jungle.

"Vaas wants a family, doesn't he?" Edmund glanced at Dynamite.

Dynamite obviously didn't like Edmund, just from the tone of his voice when he said, "His lovelife is none of your concern." He snapped.

"Oh, get the fuck over me, already." Edmund couldn't help but snap back at the youngster Pirate Lord. "Just because I've been guilty of crimes back in America doesn't mean you get to keep telling me bullshit about it here, on this island."

"Cute, newbie. You may be older than I, but in this world, I still outrank you. You will listen to my fucking demands, or it'll be my fucking knife slitting your throat, when you sleep the next time in your cot, rapist." Dynamite just retorted, before getting up and leaving. He sighed heavily to himself when he heard Edmund make a irritated sigh, trying to ignore him for that.

"I feel like I'm stealing you from your parents. Am I, Joanie-Jones?" Vaas asks Joanie, with a smirk on his face.

"Jury's still out." Joanie shrugged, looking back to Vaas.

"Hey, Joanie!" A different voice called out to Joanie, afar on the beach shore. On the beach, there was a young Hispanic boy, waving up at Joanie at the hill. "Joanie, come down and see the things we found on that abandon yacht!" He shouted out, gesturing towards the lifeboat that was pulled up to shore, loaded with closed boxes.

"Who's _that_?" Mickey hissed quietly.

Joanie made a soft, frightened look on her face, seeing Mickey glaring down at the young boy's direction. "He's Linguine, a French kid I met a while ago, when I was in the cafeteria getting food. He's really nice!" Joanie threw in, when she saw Mickey's glare harden.

"French... OH, LORDY-LORD." Vaas dramatically shouted. "Joanie is making friends."

"Hey," Jackal suddenly appeared. "You called?"

"I said Lordy-Lord. Not Satan." Vaas scoffed at Jackal, before receiving the middle-finger from him. Vaas nicked the lit cigar from between Jackal's lips and took it for himself. "This stogie is worthless to me now, all thanks to being used." He blew out smoke from his mouth. "Here, amigo."

Jackal shook his head. "You better get that out of my face now, or else, I might as well shove that stogie so far up your ass, you'll have to light your nose on fire, just to smoke it." Both he and Vaas barked out laughing.

Linguine didn't have so much of a chance to greet Joanie, due to the fact that the darken expressions on Mickey and Vaas' faces made him go running for the hills. Vaas had usually thought of Joanie as a friend or foe, or a daughter-figure in his life that he needed to take care of, until he would be dead.

Come to think of it, as Vaas kept these two girls with him, he had felt as if he were living on sin for taking them from their normal lives.

**_"If our love is tragedy, why are you my remedy? If our love is insanity, why are you my clarity?"_ (- Clarity, by Zedd. Piano version.)**

**In the next chapter, things will pick up. Sorry, sorry, for not writing so much on this story. I was caught up with my new crossover story. Check it out, if you want, or remain in this epic tale of things churning for the better-worse, soon.**

**For a new start with Vaas, I'm thinking of making him more characteristic. The wolf pelt is a good start, showing his personality of tribe bloodline and traits. Next time, I'm going to add in more surprises to his character.**

**More to come hopefully, in the next chapter.**


	32. Ducks Don't Give A Quack

**[Drinking Death]**

"What's with the kindness, Jackal?" Vaas asked Jackal, as the two rival-friends approached the nearest pub on the island's party grounds, nearby the wrecked shacks, huts and large hotel resort buildings. "Am I being paranoid, or are you busting my balls right now?" He narrowed his eyes at Jackal, as the two entered the dark room of a dimly lit pub, with the small bumps of metal music playing in the background, and the cheap décor of red lights faintly lighting the darkness enough to guide through.

Jackal made a scoff. "Pssh. You hadn't drank since you got out of Dynamite's hideout. Might as well get some hard liquor down in your stomach, before you're killed by something else, other than a failed liver." He joked callously, raising his eyebrows at Vaas, with a thick smirk tugged on his lips. "Come on. Think of it as a date."

"Then, I should rethink my tastes." Vaas retorts with a chuckle, passing by Jackal with a playfully bump at his arm with his elbow.

At the bar, the two ordered the same drinks, which were old fashion rum mixed in bitters and other fizzy drinks. The bartender was someone awfully new for Vaas to see. Usually, he saw a young man behind the counter serving drinks, but this time, it was an older man, with a rugged look and hard stares. Vaas immediately sensed something bad, and didn't want to take a drink from the new bartender, but, Jackal egged him on anyhow.

"Come on! It's your fucking Captian Morgan we're talking about!" Jackal shouted, handing Vaas his shot of mixed rum. "Look," he shows the his own glass of the same dark drink. "We've got the same stuff. We can just drink at the same time, and see what's up."

"And, if I don't make it out alive?" Vaas narrowed his eyes at the bartender as he asked.

Jackal shrugged his shoulders. "Then, we'll wait it out. Lose our fucking minds together, after we're poetic and all that nonsense." Jackal's own smile was something reassuring for Vaas to see, as he tried hard not to admit the fact that he, too, missed Jackal and his constant retorts and snarky comments. Not to mention, oddly enough, Vaas missed Jackal's swearing.

As Jackal lifted his glass shot, Vaas decided to go for it, lifting his own glass shot, and had a toast.

"Here's to us ducks," Jackal toasted. "'Cause we don't give a quack."

At the same time, the two drank down the hard liquor, slamming their emptied glass shots down onto the bar surface with a huff.

"I'm alive!" Vaas cheered, feeling the liquor firing his insides.

"See? Fucking pansy." Jackal shoved Vaas at his shoulder playfully. "Hey, you," he then glanced at the bartender. "More coming our way, yeah?"

The bartender nodded silently.

The entire hour in that bar felt like ions in those stools. The sun outside had gone down, and Vaas and Jackal were still challenging each other to a drinking contest on who could hold down the most liquor in minutes, without throwing up. Both being such hard drinkers, this was a challenge going on for the miles. They eventually lost count of who drank the most, but it didn't matter, after the bartender was finally ready to add in something else to their last shots of dark rum.

The bartender _was _someone Vaas had to watch out for. He was a ex-recruit to Citra's tribe, leaving it behind to get his own vengeance out on Vaas. After killing so much of the tribe's men, that included most of his sons, this bartender wanted the famous pirate lord to die a painful, churning death. Slow as it could be, and the most cowardly of lethal ways to kill a man.

After adding in a large batch of tasteless poison into Vaas and Jackal's shots, watching the two pirates drink them down, the bartender finally told them that the bar was closing, and that they needed to leave. Delirious under the alcohol's power, Vaas and Jackal had to be escorted out, thrown out to the night that felt extremely silent with no sounds of voices or nature greeting their ears.

But, the two didn't think much on the piercing silence, as they could only hear the sounds of their heart beats thumping in their ear drums. They ventured forth into the jungle, thinking of taking a quick way back home, but were all but lost in the wilderness, despite the fact that they understood their directions fluently.

"Vaas." Jackal clicked his tongue, seeing Vaas stumbling. "Vaas, wait-" He tried halting Vaas from walking further, but felt something in his stomach churning hard. "Ah, fuck!" He yelped out, holding his stomach with his arms.

"Ssssssshhhhhhhhhhh," Vaas hissed at him, trying to keep his balance. "..." He didn't say anything else.

"V-Vaas, wait-!" Jackal pleaded, holding stomach still. "I think... I think-!" He fell down to his knees hard. "I'm going to have a baby."

"SAY WHAT?!" Vaas screamed out, turning fully to Jackal, without trying to stumble. "No way... whose baby, you home-wrecker!"

"It's your baby." Jackal lied. "I'm going to name him Eddie, and we'll take family photos together, hurrrrrr."

"Ahhh!" Vaas tried jogging out of the jungle the two ended up in. "Such a fucking hassle."

"Pffffft." Jackal stuck his tongue at Vaas. "Let's just sit here, until morning hits." He suggested, finding the nearest tree trunk to relax his jittery body against, sliding down to the ground to sit. "Shit, I feel so fucking weird...!" He wrung his arms in front of him, seeing his hands shaking. "Did they give us drugs in our drinks?!"

"Who caaaaares?!" Vaas shouted out, throwing his arms out into the arm. "I'm so fucking drunk, shit just got real."

Vaas eventually lost steam of standing and just plopped down next to Jackal onto the ground, but missed the tree trunk when he tried leaning his back against it, and just fell flat on the grass. Jackal scoffed and grabbed the front of Vaas' shirt to pull him back up.

"You're a fucking drunk. I'm telling everyone." Jackal slurred through his teeth, before he leaned in to lay his head down on Vaas' shoulder. "Aw, fuck it. I need rest." And then, he remembered something he almost forgot to do. "Oh, shit, I almost forgot. Ey, Vaas," lifting his head up to look at Vaas' green ditzy eyes.

Without waiting for a response from the drunk pirate, Jackal grabbed Vaas' lower jaw and pulled him straight into a shocking kiss.

Vaas' eyes snapped open widely, as he couldn't speak up, with his mouth covered by Jackal's. He fearfully clamped his hands down on Jackal's shoulders and gripped them tightly, squeezing his robotic hand tightly over Jackal's arm without remembering his new strength.

"Ow, fuck-!" Jackal yelped, slapping Vaas' prosthetic hand off of him. "Shit, that fucking hurt...!" Jackal hissed to himself, holding his now bruising shoulder.

Vaas didn't say anything still. He just stared at Jackal, with large eyes full of confusion and excitement.

"Sorry," Jackal rolled his eyes, shrugging his good shoulder. "Just curious of your new jaw. Feels weird, but," he shrugged again, "I dunno."

"You _know_, I'm in love with Mickey, yeah?" Vaas snarled at Jackal, narrowing his eyes. "If she knew you were all over me, she would-"

"Pft." Jackal cut him off with a scoff. "Mickey would go ape-shit crazy if I were another _girl_, but, I ain't a lady, as you can tell. Mickey's got nothing against the homos on this island, anyways. She made friends with that one homosexual gun merchant ions ago, remember?" He raised a curious eyebrow at Vaas. "What's wrong with a little _bromance_, when it's not Carlos this time, hm?" He smirked.

"We ain't like that." Vaas defended himself. "We're just bros."

"Sure." Jackal scoffed again with a curt smile on his face, making Vaas fume. "Just because I'm curious, and you're such a womanizer, don't mean it could hurt this once. So!" He clapped his hands together. "I won't play you wrong, my man. I'll leave you to that, if that's cool."

_Shit_. Vaas swore to himself thoughtfully, looking on at Jackal with a softened glare. _The old Jackal charm_. _He woos a chick with a compliment or trick, and then, he leaves them off to let them chose whether to chase after him or not_. Vaas put his hand over his face, pressing his fingers over his corneas in frustration. _I ain't fucking homo, fucker_. He hissed at Jackal some more, but couldn't help with what he felt for his moronic rival-friend.

Out of anger, or something along the lines of more excitement, Vaas used his prosthetic hand and suddenly wrapped it around Jackal's throat, slamming his back against the tree trunk with force, moving in front of him to look closely at his eyes. Jackal choked out, feeling the metal hand squeezing out his oxygen like a squeak-toy.

"What's your grief, brother?" Vaas asked curiously through a growl. "Why're you being like this? I thought you hated me!"

Jackal smirked to that, shrugging his shoulders. "Everybody hates Vaas," but he raised his eyebrow at Vaas once more. "Yet, everybody loves Vaas, too."

"You don't love me." Vaas scoffed, lightly releasing his hand around Jackal's throat.

"Who says I never did?" Jackal felt Vaas' hand releasing slowly from his throat, but didn't think of swatting his hand away again. "You're a fucker sometimes, friend, but you're also someone to keep a close eye on, true? I have, since I first arrived to this Hellhole. Nothing like a little infatuation to give your confidence a boost, no, Vaas?" Jackal was still smirking, while speaking, with his eyes glimmering to see Vaas' face hardening to anger. "I know you won't kill me, though."

Vaas pressed his thoughts to Jackal's words, knowing that all the wondering would lead him nowhere, or somewhere. Still, he didn't release his softened hold around Jackal's throat, as he stared green daggers into blue ones. "Why are you being like this? Is it 'cause you've got beef over something I did?" Vaas asked, unsure of why Jackal was acting so oddly still.

"'Cause I'm dying." Jackal finally answered.

Vaas' face fell quietly. His breathing almost stilled.

"That bartender put something in my drink. I think I drank more poison than you did, friend." He exhaled heavily, wincing to the sharp pain stabbing him in the stomach from the insides. "Shit." He held his stomach with both his hands, gripping them over the fabric of his shirt. "Fucking... hurts...!" He whimpered, tightly closing his eyes, with a hiss escaping from between his teeth. "But, uh... Yeah..." He shrugged his shoulders at Vaas. "'Thought of telling you that you're a good rival-friend to go against, and all those poetic shit that I don't like rehearsing."

Vaas breathed unevenly, seeing that his friend was in grave condition of dying fast. Vaas oddly felt no such poison in him, even if the fire of alcohol was burning his insides critically, he didn't feel as pained as Jackal did at the moment. He smirked and looked back to Jackal with a somber look on his face.

"Did you want to fuck me, you sicko?" Vaas curiously asked Jackal.

Jackal's eyebrows bounced to the thought, shifting his eyes to the side, not looking at Vaas. "Ah, I've thought of it. But, you would just kill me." He made a snarky smile at Vaas, with his eyes darkening by every minute of his unfocused eyes beginning to go blind. "... This really sucks..." He exhaled sharply to the new sensation of something tightening in his chest. "Shit, shit, shit...!" He swore in a chant, now gripping his hand over his chest. "I'm ready to give birth to Eddie, mister Doctor." He chuckled out, bending forward.

"No, fucking wait-!" Vaas grabbed Jackal's shoulders and shoved him back against the tree trunk to look at him. "Don't you fucking die, you piece of shit!"

Jackal's breathing quickened as he felt the tight hold gripping right at his heartstrings, pulling them out of his beating organ one-by-one in kneading pain. He gulped heavily, when he felt like purging out his rotting pain onto the jungle ground. But, he held it in, and felt his head pounding, and his blood fire up underneath his skin.

"What should I do, doc?" Jackal asked Vaas, feeling his body shaking. "I think I'm going to lose Eddie."

"Then, just die with him." Vaas lastly retorted through his own emotions ravaging his chest, before he closed the gap between he and Jackal once more, with their heated lips colliding hard, and tasting the alcohol they shared together. While he kissed the pained man, Vaas unsheathed a loaded pistol from his hip holster, and cocked it back.

The mechanical sound of the gun cocking back made Jackal's lips quirk with another smirk. "Brat." Jackal called Vaas. "Always the brat for things you wanted, I know. If you couldn't have it, then what's the point of letting them survive?" He repeated Vaas' own metaphor to him, before he felt Vaas' nervous tongue enter his mouth carefully, obviously inexperienced with a man, nervous as a schoolgirl. "Haha." Jackal laughed at him, as me proceeded to kiss Vaas back with a swipe of his tongue over Vaas'.

Jackal was surprisingly calm with kissing another man, as if he had done this before. To Vaas, he wouldn't be surprised if Dynamite was somehow involved in Jackal's sensual fantasies as well, due to the fact that the two were as close as brothers. Vaas ignored the name of Dynamite for now, wanting nothing more than to satisfy Jackal's remaining moments of being alive. As childish as Vaas was, and how much he did hate-love Jackal, he was being a selfish brat to need Jackal's last moments to himself, as no one else.

"Vaas-" Jackal choked out, turning his head quickly to spat out a mouthful of alcohol mixed with poison in his throat. "Kill me." He pleaded quietly. "I can't take the fucking pain anymore. Just kill me." He hissed, inhaling air from between his clenched teeth, as he tipped his head back against the tree trunk to try and endure the pain that shot up the back of his neck.

Hearing this, Vaas lifted up the pistol to his good friend's forehead and pressed the cold barrel against his heated skin.

Jackal hesitated for a moment, as Vaas did, while the two men looked at each other in the eyes.

Until Jackal chuckled out, "I'm not looking at you, when I die." He shifted his eyes away, turning his head slightly.

"You _will_," ordered Vaas in a snarl, grabbing Jackal by his jaw and turned his head back to him. "Look at me."

"Selfish brat." Jackal retorted at Vaas.

"No, I'm not the selfish one! You are!" Vaas screamed.

"Fuck you, too, asshole." Jackal smiled at him in a curt notion. "Just get on with it."

Vaas pulled back the trigger slowly, thinking hard of killing Jackal. As much as he told himself to grow up and let go, Jackal was one of the people in his life that he wanted to keep for himself, and let no one else own him. All of them were toys, toys, toys, and Vaas wanted them all for himself. Even if it were an obnoxious broken record player called Jackal, that would scratch at his ego with witty retorts, and chant swears and curt at him whenever the given chance. As much as he should break Jackal, he didn't want to toss him away, either.

"Fuck you..." Vaas swore at Jackal quietly, finally making up his mind.

When he pulled the trigger, Jackal's eyes glanced somewhere else, not looking at Vaas fully, before the bullet plunged straight into his waiting forehead, with bloodshed spattering Vaas' face and the tree trunk behind Jackal, when the bullet sliced through his head's interior to escape out the other side. Jackal died, with his eyes remaining shifted the other way, and a frozen smirk on his face.

"Bitch!" Vaas swore at himself, seeing Jackal's signature smirk played out on his face still, as he instantly died. "You fucking selfish son-of-a-bitch asshole...!" He threw Jackal's body to the side, beginning to feel the wet warmth of tears gathering in his eyes, as he saw his rival fall slump onto the ground. Vaas tossed his pistol aside to cry hard, to the fact that he took his best friend's life. "Fuck, fuck, fucking shit!" He cried harder, slamming his prosthetic hand down on the ground.

**Another yaoi moment with Vaas, but not anything sexual in this one. More of awkward confession from Jackal's love for Vaas that he liked to show through rivalry and hatred. Rivalry-friendship to the fullest, as the two finally let go of each other, through life and death all together.**

**More to come soon, in the next chapter.**


	33. Newest Pet

**[Gunz Up]**

When Jackal died, things began to start deteriorating slightly. It was never anything for the better, as Vaas lost a friend he was considering to be some sort of sick love for. Constantly, as Vaas thought back to those days of being with Jackal, he would repeatedly remind himself that he was not gay. Vaas constantly told himself he wasn't gay, despite the fact that he enjoyed the attention he had from Jackal.

As it began to slowly sink into Vaas' head for some days after Jackal's death, he came to a determined result of accepting the fact that he was bisexual. Despite the fact that Vaas did not believe in loving two genders, he felt that it was only curious hetero-attraction he felt for a man, at that moment of Jackal's last breaths.

Honestly, Vaas cared less of sexuality. It was a waste of time to feud over, he always said, and that he should use his feuding energy on more logical ordeals. He tried for a while to put off the fantasies he could have likely had with Jackal, if the man were still alive. Most likely Jackal would be the one trying something on Vaas first, just because he knew Jackal would want domination over the beast first. And, of course, Vaas wouldn't have that.

"He's dead." Dynamite was the one that took the bigger toll on Jackal's death.

Vaas understood the youngster's pain, knowing how close he and Jackal were, as best friends. The boy genius was someone that looked to Jackal for comfort, or just a close conversation with, whenever he needed to hear the reassurance of words to calm him down from a long day of killing or recreating the dead with technology. Dynamite held in the love for Jackal so deep, enough to dig himself in his own grave, for the crazy man.

It wouldn't be surprising to know that Dynamite had some sort of sexual relationship with Jackal, even though he was seventeen, and Jackal was in his late-twenties.

But, Dynamite's unhealthy romance for the older man made Vaas think of his own relations with Mickey. Of course, there was nothing wrong with their own ages, but, he mostly thought hard of how she had become undeniably transfixed on their love. He would laugh sometimes, just to think hard on the days when their own romance had sometimes deteriorated and ignited to something more. He wanted to go back sometimes, and forget everything existed, expect for Mickey.

"Hey, you," Vaas was the one that approached Mickey now, finding her at the beach alone, when it was deepening to Spring now. "I thought I'd find you out here." He plopped down next to Mickey on the long sitting rock she was also sitting on.

"Ey." Mickey greeted her lover, receiving a kiss on the head from Vaas. She didn't sound so thrilled today, though. She sounded soft-spoken.

"What's your beef?" Vaas asked in a joking manner, hearing Mickey give a breathy chuckle. "Nah, seriously, girl. What's wrong?"

Mickey pressed her lips together thoughtfully, trying to think of the best answer for her silence. "Well..." She hesitated for a short moment. "... I heard that Jason had got Citra pregnant."

Vaas fell silent for a moment, sinking in the news. But, he regrouped his thoughts, and simply shrugged, "So?"

Mickey looked down at her hands, twisting them together thoughtfully. "It keeps making me remember the fact that I can't have kids."

_Oh_. Was all Vaas could think, when he also remembered that Mickey couldn't have children.

"It's not fair." She shifted her eyes away. "... It's more than unfair."

But, Vaas knew the feeling that Mickey was experiencing. If Citra was able to have children, then why couldn't she? It just didn't make sense any longer, to the idea of Mickey being unable to have her own children, and that a reckless princess, such as Citra, was still able to. Vaas could see the unfairness in the situation, and wanted to make it better, even though there was hardly toddlers on the island. Mickey had Joanie, but Joanie was matured and old enough to know that Mickey isn't her mother.

"Don't worry, mi chica." Vaas petted the back of her head. "I'll make things better."

"... Yeah..." Mickey nodded her head lightly.

"In the meantime! Why don't we go meet that gun merchant. He's about to arrive to the island in," Vaas glanced at his wrist-watch, "about fifteen to five."

"Sure." Mickey shrugged her shoulders.

* * *

The meeting with the gun merchant was a long talk in Laotian language, between he and Vaas. While the men negotiated a deal for the hundreds of gun and crates full of ammunition, Mickey had decided to sit in the large truck that was loading the brand-new guns. The packing was taking a while, due to the fact that Vaas wanted the merchandise to remain unscaved and unmarked from a rush packing, so, Mickey was getting bored.

In a while of just sitting there and thinking to herself, Mickey was suddenly met by the sound of a knock at her cardoor window. She looked over, and saw that it was one of the merchants that were packing the truck with guns. He was wearing the grey uniform, straight down to the black boots. What stood out was that he was especially young-looking, as if he were younger than Dynamite. What was a _thirteen-year-old_ doing as a merchant? Again, he knocked on the window for Mickey to open.

Once Mickey rolled down the window, the young merchant told her, "You'll have to make a second trip. We've got too much to pack in the barge." He explained.

"Hm." Mickey hummed to herself thoughtfully, looking over the young man once more with her eyes. She stared at him hard, with her lips pouted in deep thought, until she had come to a conclusion, "I want to _buy_ you."

"Say what?" The man was taken aback by her words.

"Yeah!" Mickey swung open the door of her cardoor and jumped out, quickly grabbing the young man by his forearms to make him stay still. "Vaas!" Mickey started shouting Vaas' name, while trying to hold down the youngster with her strength, having no choice but to plunge the struggling boy down to the sandy ground. "Hey, Vaas!"

"What? What, mi hermana?" Vaas quickly shouted out, jogging over to the side of the truck, finding Mickey pinning down the young merchant. "What's wrong? Is he making trouble for you?!"

"No! I want to buy him!" Mickey responded, through keeping the struggling boy as still as she could. "He's perfect to be a son to me!"

"... Huuh?" Vaas looked at Mickey dumbly. "This kid? There's more out there in the village-"

"I'm not a buffet, fuckers!" The young merchant screamed, while feeling Mickey twist his arms around to hook them behind his back. The boy shouted something in Greek, which surprised the two pirate lords. He was most likely shouting profanity.

"Shaddup, kid!" Vaas shouted down at the boy. "If Mickey wants something, she gets it!" He callously reminded him. Vaas then looked back to Mickey. "Fine! You can have the boy! I'll have to negotiate with the gun merchant boss, though. It'll cost me more cash..."

"Here!" Mickey fished out a thick roll of hundreds from her shorts' pocket. "Give this to him! It's one-hundred-thousand!"

"You sons-of-bitches!" The Greek boy kept screaming, while seeing Mickey exchanging the money with Vaas. "I'll fucking kill you all! I'll kill you all!" The boy was quickly hushed by the feeling of his arms released from the tight grasp, and being roughly turned over to his back, to look up at Mickey. He snarled when he saw Mickey's face. "Hey! I was just having a marvelous day, and you _had _to come and destroy that?!"

"Yep!" Mickey grinned. "And, you're my newest son!"

"I'm no one's son!" The boy wanted to spit at Mickey, but, knew it was wrongly to do so. He just gritted his teeth, watching Mickey get up, and pull him straight up to his feet. "What the fuck is this bullshit, huh?" The boy hissed at Mickey.

"It's done!" Vaas returned to the two. "Rubio is yours!"

"Rubio?! That's your name?" Mickey asked the youngster.

Rubio just looked away, and nodded once.

* * *

**Apologies. My sense of creativity is running thin. I do not know what to put next. I may just take a long break from this.**

**But more will hopefully be up soon.**


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